Notes
by ms.Poofball
Summary: Notes are given to her. Riddles are for her to decipher. She is playing a deadly game with no quits. He was winning, until it is her turn to roll the dice. But how do you win when your opponent is that of the dead and played this game many times before?
1. Abandoned

**Notes**

Dislclaimer: Inuyasha and company doesn't belong to me..wahhh that's so **unstealthy**...BUT THIS PLOTLINE AND STORY DOES, which is very **stealthy**

Genre: Suspenseful/Dramatic/horror/ a lil bit of ol' romance thrown in there (**very little**)/ and a partner of suspense...mystery! enjoy!

--

Chapter 1- Abandoned

--

Blood.

All he saw was blood. The dark substance coated the floor, the doors, his toys and his clothes. His room was coated in blood and tears stained his chubby face. There! The child turned his head rapidly to the place where he saw something or someone move.

"Momma? Poppa? Brother?" the child whispered. He heard a chuckle and the boy tried to find where the sound came from. "Where's my momma? Where's my poppa and my bro-brother?"

"Gone. They're all gone boy..." a man wearing all white with blood stains, really contrasted against each other. The man had a mask on that covered his features.

"Where'd they go? Will they come back?" the child asked timidly.

_'Run Inuyasha! Run and don't come back!'_

"I'll show you your momma though..."

The child ignored the voice in his head as he slowly moved towards the man who will show him his momma. The man smirked behind the mask and walked outside the room and down the long hallway. The child still followed, hope rising in his heart that he would see him momma again.

The man stopped in front of the child's parents door and opened it slowly. The child sniffed and smelled more blood. His mother's blood. He rushed inside. What he saw made him gag as he threw out his stomach's contents. There, hanging from the ceiling, was his momma's body. All her wounds were neatly and freshly cut and oozed out heavy amounts of blood.

The child noticed his momma's eyes were gouged out and only her empty sockets stared back at him. Her eyeballs were placed on a pillow on top of the futon neatly. The child saw two lumps in the far corner and assumed it was his big brother and his poppa. The child turned around and was met with the man who brought him here.

The man held a big paintbrush covered in fresh blood and stalked towards the cowering boy. He bent down to the boy's level and hugged him. The boy screamed and stuggled against his captor's hold, but the man didn't budge. He only moved when he dug one of his claws deep in the child's small arm, filled with poison.

"I'm sorry kid..." the man said and waited for the poison to start working. "I truly am..."

The child stopped as his small body slackened against the captor's arms, then he laid still. The man placed the dead child in the middle of the bed and turned around to leave, but he looked at the dead bodies and saw the child twitch. He slowly rose up and his dead, golden eyes turned violet.

"You don't sound sorry to me..." the child's voice was not his own, but that of the woman who now hung limply from the ceiling. The violet eyes held a dead sadness. "Why..."

The man ran towards the child and grasped his small neck. The dead child remained unfazed as he limply hung in mid-air, looking at the very man who killed him and his family. Soon, the violet in the child's eyes receded, to be replaced by the dimmed golden orbs.

The masked man dropped the child back on the bed and walked out of the room, only to come back with old looking sacks. He carefully placed the child's body in the smallest sack and closed it. He did the same with the other bodies. He left the room to only come back with an old wheelbarrow. He placed the sacked bodies in the wheelbarrow and left the room, and to leave this house behind.

The moon above hung low tonight as the night animals remained unusually quiet. The trees above loomed over the abandoned house, and never once did the murderer looked back. He will clean up the mess he caused by tearing down this house and rebuilding a replica, to cover his tracks. The man smiled and continued walking.

--

A few months had passed and a villager decided to visit the dog youkai family and his mate, in the forest that lay on the outskirts of their village. The villager walked in when no one answered and walked towards the area where they usually ate and found nothing. No one was there, nothing was there, except this note that laid innocently on the floor.

The villager bent down to pick the note up. He read it and ran outside the house and into the village, yelling for the lord.

_Those who comes_

_Shall be swimming in the black abyss_

_Never to return _

_This family had been paid back through death _

_Never step foot in this house _

_Unless you want to be trapped_

_Like a bug, struggling within _

_A spider's deadly web of many _

_Deciet and lies_

The village guards and the lord tried to find the one who killed this loving family. Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months. Months turned to years. Years turned to decades. As time passed, and the feudal era was no more, being replaced by modern Tokyo, the stories of how the killed family died changed over the years, and no one knew why they were killed or by whom.

Those who listen carefully, can hear a painful feminine scream and a desperate cry for help in the dead of night. Yet those are just rumors. People say that the child's soul haunts the house and kills those who dare enter it, to protect his family's property. Yet those are just rumors as well. Teenagers said that there are dead bodies in the abandoned house. Yet again, those were just rumors as well.

People said many things about the house that used to stand so proudly and calmly in the middle of the forest. The forest was cut down, only half remaining, being used as a backyard, as cement and human modern-day development surrounded the abandoned house that now stood creepily on a hill.

Stupidly, the mayor placed the abandoned house for sale to gain some money, yet no one bought it, as the legends about the house still echoed in Tokyo. Years has passed by and those who tried to fix up the house died a few days after. The doctors claimed that the workers died from something that should've been extinct long ago, back in the feudal era.

Five years had passed and no one dared go near the house. The mayor was superly pissed and decided to fix the house himself. He fixed the house and it took him a full year to do it by himself. Everybody was shocked that the mayor was still alive and the rumors of the house faded from Tokyo.

He even sold it to a family, but his moments were shortlived when he was found hanging limply, his eyes gouged out, in his bedroom. His eyeballs laid innocently on a pillow in the middle of his bed. Not to mention, he had neatly sliced wounds all over his body.

Tokyo went into chaos and everybody started comparing what happenend centuries ago to the mate of the dog youkai to what happened to the mayor. It was the same. The one who killed the mate, killed the mayor a year and a few months after stepping in the house. The murder was either a copy or someone was trying to relive the moment. Too late, the family who bought this house was not notified and when they took their first step in the house, they unknowingly knew they just planned out their deaths.

--

yoooo, new story yooooo ahahaha. What do you think? First try on doing a suspenseful story ahahaha don't be shy and review please!! Sorry it's a bit short...it'll be longer as it progressed don't worry!

p.s. don't mind the grammar mistakes, even though english is my first language, i really suck at it ahahahah please bear with me!


	2. First Note

**Notes**

--

Chapter 2- First Note

--

_Dear Kagome,  
sorry we're not home right now, but we had to leave quickly. We just won tickets to go to Hawaii! I'm sorry we couldn't bring you because we knew how much school meant to you! Not to mention we only got three tickets and you know grandpa, he only has a short time to live and well Souta, "he needs a life that does not include video-games what-so-ever!" as you explained many times. Well sweetie, I left some money in my room for you to spend it on whatever! I have to go now, the car to drive us to the airport is here! Love you!_

_-Loving you always and never will stop, don't forget us, your family_

Kagome glared hatefully at the note left to her by her so-called mother, ignoring all the spelling and grammar mistakes.

"Oh yeah, we'll just leave Kagome here in a hell-hole called school where she can have fun!" Kagome said as sarcasm dripped from her words.

The house was quiet and the day was beautiful outside, so it only meant...

"Time to get a job Higurashi," Kagome said.

--

"Hi, can I apply for a job here?" Kagome asked and jerked her thumb towards the sign that said 'Help Wanted'.

"No."

Kagome blinked. "What?

"I said no. You deaf woman?" the male behind the counter said.

Kagome's eyes flared with anger. "I did not mean that. I meant why can't I apply?"

"If I told you, you would slap me."

"Tell me! Why can't I apply!"

The male looked at her cooly and smirked. "'Cause you're ugly. You're going to scare away all my customers."

"Inuyasha, don't tell me you're scaring away all the customers!" a voice yelled from the back room.

"Look who's talking!" Kagome said and stuck out her tongue at the angry male. "So, can I apply for a job?"

"Yes you can, but not here," Inuyasha said and glared at the annoying girl.

The girl had bluish-black hair that went up to the middle of her small back. She had one mesmerizing blue eye and one hypnotizing brown eye. Her skin was slightly tanned and her small frame was toned. She wore basketball shorts that went a centimetre under her knees and a dark blue tight-fitting shirt. She had long, toned legs and a very curvy body.

"Hello! Can I apply?"

She may have one hell of a body, but she's annoying as hell. "No." She also have some funky eyes. "Are you wearing contacts?"

"No! They're natural-"

"Why would you want to work here out of all places?" a man walked out of the backroom and stood beside the glaring male.

"One: this was the first place that I saw the sign," Kagome pointed at the sign and continued, "And Iwas too lazy to keep finding another one. Two," Kagome held up two fingers and smiled. "I'm pretty good at handling weapons, preferably bows and arrows."

Inuyasha snorted. He stuck out his first finger. "One: This is a sword's store. We sell and fix swords. We do not have bows and arrows and we do not hire lazy-assed people," he stopped and stuck out two fingers, just like Kagome had. "And two: You're ugly."

Kagome clenched her fists and tried to calm down. "I can do swords too. My...uh father... taught me how to handle them and how to sharpen them."

The older male noticed the slught hesistation when she mentioned her father.

"Let's see what you can do. Inuyasha, go get a dull sword in the back and bring it here."

"What am I? Your damn fetch dog?" Inuyasha said and stormed off, not without glarting at Kagome and the other male.

"Don't mind him. I am Sesshomaru Tashio," Sesshomaru stuck out his hand and Kagome shook it firmly. "That was my idiotic brother, Inuyasha."

Kagome nodded and smiled. "My name is Kagome Higurashi."

Inuyasha came back, still glaring at Kagome who glared right back. He handed her a dull sword and Kagome took it and eyed the sword.

"Do you want me to get the power tools to sharpen the sword" Sesshomaru asked. Inuyasha rose an eyebrow and got his brother's drift and smirked.

"No, it'll damge the sword's temper and heat treatment, as the friction heats up the blade. If you do use a power tool, use a Makita wet grinder to fix up a badly chipped blade. The Makita wet grinder's wheels will slowly turn, and the water will keep the blade from overheating," Kagome said easily.

Sesshomaru and Inuaysha were amazed, but it looked like Kagome was not done yet. "If a sword's too sharp, it will lose its edge and you might even chip or break it if you use a very sharp blade to cut something."

Kagome looked up from the sword and stared at the Tashio brothers. "Can you get me a metal file, a whetstone, oil for the whetstone, a 3M 400 Grit Emery paper, some paper, to wipe stuff with y'know and a block of wood and some elbow grease please?"

Inuyasha went to the back room numbly, shock over-riding all his senses. "How'd she know all that?"

Once Inuyasha handed the said items to Kagome, she started sharpening the dull sword. Soon, a new sharp blade was placed in Sesshomaru's shocked hands.

"You're hired..." Inuyasha said.

Kagome squealed and jumped off the counter and pounced on the frozen male. "Thank youuu!"

--

As Kagome arrived at her home, she noticed a note lying on the kitchen table. "Huh? That wasn't there before..."

Kagome picked up the folded note, but the hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end.

_'Go to a neighbour's house.'_

Kagome's eyes widened in alarm. Where did that voice come from? Kagome decided to go say hi to her neighbour, and she pocketed the note and left the house. While she locked the door, she convinced herself that she wasn't going because a voice in her head told her so. She ran towards her neighbour's house across the street and knocked repeatedly.

"What?!" a grouchy voice yelled from behind the door. "Go way! I do not want to buy any cookies!"

"Please Kaede! It's only me! Kagome!" Kagome said quickly, her eyes still shined fear and her voice trembled slightly.

"Kagome!" The door opened and revealed an elderly lady wearing a robe and fluffy slippers. Her long gray hair was placed in a ponytail at the nape of neck and she had one eyepatch on her right eye. "Come in child!"

Kagome quickly rushed inside the house and sat on the couch, her hand in her pocket, clutching the note. "Kaede..."

"Kagome? What has gotten ye so scared?" Kaede asked worriedly.

"Kaede...it's stupid really! I don't know why I'm so scared!" Kagome lied.

"Ye are a horrible liar child. This Kaede may have only one eye, but she can feel your fear," Kaede said as she sat across from Kagome. "Child, tell me what's wrong."

Kagome sighed and took out the crumpled and folded note from her pocket. Kaede closed her eyes and started to meditate. Kagome rose an eyebrow and she was about to unfold the crumpled note until Kaede's old hand stopped her.

"Do not open the letter child," Kaede demanded and grabbed the phone from its perch on the table, which stood in between them. She dialed a few numbers and placed the phone to her old ear. "Hello? I would like to report a murder. 16375 95A Ave on Hanah Street. This is Kaede Minato. Thank you, goodbye."

"Why did you call the police? There's a murder at my house? Kaede, you are not making any sense!" Kagome panicked and clutched the note in her hand tightly. "There's no murder in my home Kaede!"

--

It's been 35 minutes of silence until there was a knock on kaede's door. Kaede answered it and was met with an officer standing on her doorstep.

"Are you Kaede Minato?" the officer asked.

"Yes."

"Do you know what happens when you call the police department as a prank? No one is in the house. No blood, no evidence of a murder. You could be fined for this Ms. Minato"

"No. You cannot fine me, since this is no prank. Kagome, open the note now."

Kagome sighed and opened the note with trembling hands. It read:

_Michasu Kuchinao is dead for commiting adultery against her husband_

"Sir! We found a dead body!" a voice echoed from Kagome's doorway just after Kagome finished reading the note. "It's a woman!"

Kagome dropped the note and gasped. The officer who was talking with Kaede walked towards the other officer and followed him in the house, with shock written all over his face.

"How...how..." Kagome muttered and she fell to the ground. "How did...Kaede? What happened? Kaede, I don't understand...a body, in my home."

--

"Well, that was fun wasn't it? Killing that woman for what she's done to her husband for five years. She deserved it," a man laughed and crossed Michasu Kuchinao's name off the parchment of paper with her own blood.

There were two figures who bowed in front of their master. One remained stoic and emotionless, while the other glared hatefully at their masked master. The masked man always wore a mask to cover his identity.

The masked man grabbed a peice of paper and wrote another name in it, using Michasu Kuchinao's blood as ink. Once he was done, he smiled at the name and smiled even more when he saw the piles of jars that held the eyes of those he killed in previous years.

The masked man looked down at the paper and said, "She may not have betrayed anyone, but she did break a rule."

On the paper written in blood was Kaede Minato.

--

h t t p : / / ww w. s w o r d - b u y e r s - g u i d e . c o m / s h a r p e n - s w o r d s . h t m l

That was the site where i got the sharpening the sword things from, i did not make it up...so what you think so far? Let's try to beat the how many reviews my other story "Runway Angel" received and try to get more than 18 reviews before i reach the seventh chapter k? k! Let's blow this popsicle stand!


	3. Dead

**Notes**

--  
Chap 3- Dead

--

"Do you know Michasu Kuchinao ?" Officer Ioyazi asked and showed them a picture of the dead woman. The officer who knocked on Kaede's door was still investigating the Higurashi house, while his partner, Officer Ioyazi Ikamustoihsat questioned Kagome and Kaede at the station.

"No, I've never seen her in my life! I just moved here a few weeks ago!" Kagome said. Her tears had long stopped, but fear still wrapped itself around the quivering girl. "I don't know what she's doing in my house officer, I don't know."

Officer Ioyazi turned towards the solemn Kaede who was meditating. "It is not a time to meditate! We have just found a dead body in Miss Higurashi's home with no damn evidence!"

Kaede opened her eye and looked at the officer quietly. "The dead does not leave any evidence. You must look deeper..."

--

Kagome sighed as she jumped on the counter in her kitchen with her laptop on her lap. The sun had set long ago and the night critters scurried about.

It's been one full week since they have found Michasu Kuchinao's body in Kagome's house. Kagome has been bunking with Kaede while they continued to find some evidence within the week (but they found none), but the officers told her it's safe to move back in. The said girl was hesistant to step foot in her house and was very paranoid. She would jump at every sound she heard, hell, even her own voice scared the crap out of her.

This was the second day of coming back to her own house after the incidence. Her family hadn't even called her to see how she was doing or to say hi. Kagome had no homework and she was bored. She didn't feel like going to sleep just yet, so she decided to surf the net.

"I want juice," Kagome said to herself and placed the laptop beside her and jumped off the counter. She went to her fridge and grabbed a juicebox. When she turned around, there was a folded note on the screen of her laptop.

Kagome dropped her juicebox and ran towards the door that would lead her to Kaede's house, the safe zone. She grasped the doorknob and pulled on it. It did not budge. She grew frantic. Kagome ran towards another door that would lead outside, but as she grabbed the doorknob, it did not budge either. Her heart started beating quickly and she started breathing in irregularly breaths.

"Help! Please anyone!" Kagome cried and she ran towards the windows.

She tried to open it but it would not budge either. She grabbed something heavy near the window sill and when she raised it above her head to smash it against the window, she screamed and dropped it. She backed herself in a corner, staring horridly at the item she had just touched.

There, lying on the ground was a dead, disfigured leg. It was bloody, but it was fresh. Kagome raised her hands in front of her face and saw the blood that covered her hands. She also felt some drip onto her head when she raised it above her head. The blood slowly trailed down her pale face and down her spine.

Kagome screamed and got up and ran. She ran to any door that would lead her to the outside world and out of this hell-hole. She left bloody handprints everywhere as she grabbed onto anything.

_Creeeak..._

Kagome froze and slowly turned around to where the sound came from. Another creak and soon, the girl heard something rolling towards her. As the thing that continued to roll closer to her, she saw the item was somewhat round and plumpy. As it was only a few feet away, Kagome released a blood-curdling scream when she knew what the thing was.

The object continued rolling and stopped when it hit Kagome's shaking legs. Kagome pressed herself against the corner even more and closed her eyes, wishing it was only a dream, a nightmare. Hot, salty tears poured down her pale and blood-smudged cheeks and she let out a quiet whimper.

The item that sat quietly at Kagome's feet, was Kaede Minato's bloody head. Kagome opened her eyes and stared at the calm looking face of Kaede and she screamed again. "Why?! Kaede!"

Kagome pulled her legs closer to her body and away from the old woman's head. Soon, the blood started to turn a blue-greenish colour. Kagome watched silently as the blood turned a different colour. She watched how it soon started to evaporate. She watched how Kaede's mouth twitched into a sad smile and that soon disappeared.

Kagome brought her hands up to her face again and saw the blood that coated her fingers were gone. She slowly stood up and ran towards the kitchen, and towards her laptop that held not only one note, but two notes.

Kagome picked up the note that was first on the screen that made her run. She read it.

_Kaede Minato. A traitor to the world. Must be eliminated._

Kagome felt more tears flow down her cheeks and she picked up the other note.

_Child, you have stepped into your own death. You will find more of that in the near future, and you will also join your loved ones...cherish the time you have here. Do not tell anyone of this or else they will die as well..._

The ink the writer used to write these two notes was blood. Kagome closed her eyes and fell to the ground, her small frame wracked with uncontrollable sobs.

After reading those notes, she grabbed the doorknob and pulled. It opened. Kagome then walked down her driveway and towards Kaede's house. She opened the door and saw Kaede's dead body lying on her couch, her eyes lying beside her on the table, atop a pillow.

The body started glowing and vanished, so did the eyes. Kagome then walked out of the house and into her own. Kagome knew this house had a deadly past.

--

It was 8:3o pm and there was a storm outside. The trees howled against the strong wind, and the house creaked under the force of the rain and wind.

Kagome was currently in the bathroom, splashing her face with cold water. She looked in the mirror and saw her pale, reflection, the creases in her forehead and light bags under her eyes.

"Please, what do you want from me? What is the reason for all these killings in my house?" Kagome whispered.

The mirror flashed and showed Kagome something. Kagome gazed at the mirror, until she heard a knock on her door. She screamed and the picture she saw in the mirror disappeared.

"Chill Kagome, it's just a knock on the door," Kagome said and walked downstairs to answer the door. "It could be the Grimm Reaper ready to take your sou-Wait! I am not going to die! It is not the Grimm Reaper at the stupid door!"

Kagome reached the main door and looked through the peep hole. It was dark outside and there were no lights on. She cursed inwardly. Maybe she shouldn't answer it. The person continued knocking and Kagome stayed quiet as possible.

"Kagome! I know you're in there! I heard you scream! Is everything alright?"

Kagome rose an eyebrow. "Officer Ioyazi?"

"Yeah! My car just broke down and you're the only one I know who lives in this area!" Officer Ioyazi screamed over the storm.

Kagome opened the door and pulled in the dripping wet woman in her house. "Sorry! I did not know that was you!"

"It's okay. There's a blackout and thanks," Officer Ioyazi said as she took the towels Kagome gave her.

"No problem officer-"

"Please call me Yazi," Yazi said and wrapped herself in the towels.

Kagome nodded and went to go make some hot chocolate. Yazi sat in one of the chairs and made herself comfortable. Yazi had long chesnut hair that she placed in a high ponytail; it reached her ass. She had fair skin, two pairs of deep violet eyes. Her bangs stuck to her forehead and she was pretty toned from what Kagome could tell as the clothes stuck to her lithe form.

Kagome sat in the chair across from Yazi as they waited for the water to finsh boiling. "What brings you here?"

"I was done my shift for today and to get to my house, I had to pass this area."

_**GET** **OUT**_

A deep booming voice echoed in the house and the tea kettle blew up. It sprayed hot water in Yazi's and Kagome's direction who got slightly burnt.

"AHHH!" Kagome screamed and ran towards the door once more. She jiggled the doorknob which did not open again.

"Move your hand!" Yazi yelled and took out her gun. She shot the lock and the door swung open from the force of the wind and rain. "Let's go!"

Yazi grabbed Kagome's hand as they escaped the house and entered the storm. They ran down the wet, slippery, long driveway, but a towering tree fell in their path and blocked their way to escape the property.

"How are we going to get over that!?" Kagome screamed and fear clouded her senses again. "We're done for!"

Another tree fell down, this time it was going to land on top of them. Yazi pushed Kagome out of the way, but she felt the tree fall on top of her leg and she blacked out. Kagome on the other hand, was safe from the tree, but she landed on her head as she was pushed away from the incoming danger. Before she drifted to the black abyss, the image from the mirror flashed in her scattered mind.

A family portrait of three youkai's and one human. Problem was, youkai's were extinct long ago...

--

OI oi oi how was that? I wanna try to beat Runaway Angel's review capacity (is that the right word? ahaha) before i reach the 7th chapter! Don't be shy! Review and Review please!

-Stealthy Jessica


	4. Past Killings

**Notes**

--

Chapter 4- Past Killings

--

Yazi was in a coma, the doctors said. They couldn't explain it. All she got was a broken leg and a few burnt marks on her skin. Nothing could explain what is going within the woman, for it went deeper than science and medicine.

Yazi was fully concious with what's happening in the world outside her mind. She knew the doctors thought she was in a coma. She could feel and see her friends from her work and her friends in general visit her freqently. She's stuck in her own mind, with a bloody, eyeless woman floating in front of her. Yazi yelped when the eyeless woman neared her. If they both stood beside each other, you would've thought they were twins, not counting the wounds or the lack of eyes.

"Who are you...?" Yazi asked.

The eyeless woman didn't answer her, but hugged her. Yazi was confused, but she clenched her eyes shut when suddenly, she felt pain. She screamed and struggled against the eyeless woman's embrace, but she did not budge. The slashes on the woman began to imprint itself on Yazi's body.

The eyeless woman began to talk in a monotone voice, _'Let me see through your eyes. You shall see through my heart. Ioyazi of the day. I of the night.'_

Yazi's terrified eyes closed slightly, but you could see her dulled violet eyes as she finished the eyeless woman's sentence. _'Let me see your life. You shall see through my life. You of the past. I of the future...'_

A bright flash erupted in Yazi's mind.

The moon was high in the sky as stars were scattered around.

"Doctor! She's awake!" a young nurse cried out. "Ms.Ikamustoihsat is awake!"

Yazi opened her eyes, but no longer were they a deep violet, but a light violet. Her eyes seemed more wise, instead of their usual sharpness.

"Ms. Ika-" the doctor began.

"Call me Yazi," Yazi said quietly. She was handed a glass of water and she took it gracefully. Every motion of her body was done with poise, naturality, instead of jerkiness and choppy motions.

"Yazi," the doctor said and continued, "Do you remember what happened?"

"Umm. I remember a tree falling on my leg and then blacking out," the woman said.

"Yazi, why were you and Miss Kagome outside a storm in the first place?" the doctor asked.

"I saw a suspicious person roaming outside the house. But I could've been mistaken, I hadn't eaten after my shift at the station," the hospitalized woman said.

She and Yazi shared a body. She comes out at night, while Yazi comes out in the day.

--

Blood. All she saw was blood. They coated the walls and herself. She didn't feel any pain, only a dull numbness where her heart used to be. She looked up at the man who held her heart, literally. It was a miracle she still is alive.

"It was a mistake to go against the bond you and your husband made," a man wearing a mask said quietly. The woman tried to glare at the one who killed her, but she had no strength left.

"I wanted to be loved. He didn't love me..." the woman gasped and she laid deadly still in her bloodied hut. Her dead body will be found by her husband and her children.

The masked man left, leaving only a note within the dead woman's slack hand. He also ate the woman's heart, the blood spilling down his pale chin. He smirked and left the hut and the dead woman. A few seconds later, he came back and clawed her eyes out, laying them on her futon, and left.

_Those eyes shall never see again _

_Never see what was in front of her _

_By then, it would be too late _

_This woman, died for betraying her lover _

_By embracing another man that was not hers _

_Her heart will never love again _

_For her heart is dead, _

_forever to be embracing the darkness of lies and decpetion..._

--

Kagome woke up from the nightmare with sweat dripping down her neck and back. She was hot. So very hot. The hospitalized girl sat up and got off the crisp, white bed and sheets. Her bare foot hit the shiny tiles of the ground as she made her way towards the bathroom on her left. Once in the small, tight bathroom, she looked in the mirror and the image of the family portrait in her own mirror flashed in her mind. Kagome shook her head, thinking it was only her imagination going overboard.

She turned the tap on and placed her pale hands under the cold water. She splashed the cold water against her warm face repeatedly, until she felt her original temerature return. Kagome let the tap run and she leaned on the sink counter, trying to figure out what that dream meant. She placed her right hand under the water and let the cold water run down her hand; a habit she had since she was a kid. Kagome was still thinking about the dream and noticed the light, less viscous water gained a little weight and turned more viscous. Kagome looked down and pushed herself away from the sink, overflowing with blood.

Kagome tried to walk out of the bathroom, but an invisible force pushed her closer to the blood-filled sink. The force tried to push her head in the blood, but she resisted and started screaming. She continued screaming, and no one came to her aid. Kagome's head was only a few centimeters away from being drowned in blood. Kagome had no strength left and her head was submerged in the dark liquid.

--

Light violet eyes shot open. She slowly got out bed, leaning on her left leg while she grabbed her crutches near her bed. She started hopping towards the door, intent on going to Kagome's room, which was beside hers. A hand placed itself on the woman's shoulder and she froze. She slowly turned around, looking in the red eyes her doctor now held.

"Let me go," the woman said and tried to move forward, but the doctor limited her from moving. He moved closer to her and hugged her from behind, catching her off guard.

The doctor shifted, and the woman now had a knife against her throat.

"How dare you. You betrayed your own-ACK!" the doctor gasped when the knife in his hand was now against his throat.

The woman's gaze hardened and she held the knife tightly. "Fight him doctor!"

The woman knew her doctor has been possessed by a spirit. The doctor's abnormal red eyes turned black and he lunged at the woman. The woman slashed the knife in the doctors direction to protect herself and Yazi's body. The knife sliced through the doctor's clothes and some of his skin, staining his white clothes. The woman didn't want to do this, but she figured out her doctor was no longer apart of this world. The red eyes meant he was still in there, fighting, but the black irises means he's gone, dead.

She threw her arm back, to gain some momentum before she threw the knife at the doctor's lunging body. The knife went through his clothes, skin and pinned him to the wall, his blood spurting everywhere. The spirit left his host, glaring at the woman and disappeared, leaving the dead man pinned to the bloody wall. She turned around and left the room, knowing no one can prove that she killed the doctor. She may share a body, but her fingerprints and DNA are different since she is that of the dead. The dead leave no fingerprints or any evidence, even though they have a living body.

_'You killed him!'_ Yazi's voice echoed in the woman's mind.

_'It was that or he kill us...'_

The woman opened Kagome's door and quickly hopped towards the bathroom. Once she opened the door, she saw a pool of blood in the sink and saw Kagome's still body lying on the bloody tiled ground. The woman gasped and kneeled beside Kagome's head.

"Kagome?" the woman called out. "Kagome? Sweetie, wake up..."

Kagome's eyes were closed and her mouth was slightly open. Yet, the blood on her face and neck looked like it was washed off. The woman saw a wet cloth near Kagome's feet and she picked it up. Kagome started shaking and her eyes shot open as she breathed in a huge gulp of air. The woman gasped, she saw a silowhette (sp?) of a male and he made eye contact with her. He broke the eye contact and looked at the gasping girl with a gentle look on his face.

"Thank you..." the woman whispered. The ghost looked at her and smiled sadly, before disappearing.

--

Blood. All she was blood. She was surrounded by blood everywhere. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't hear. All she could feel was an invisible hand drowing her in this pool of blood. It was only a few seconds, but she was running out of air. What seems like years for Kagome, the pressure on her neck was released and she felt someone pull her into the surface. She breathed in choppy breaths and she felt pressure on her face and her chest as someone was giving her CPR. She opened her eyes and was met with a ghostly face before she blacked out.

_'I'm sorry...'_ a masculine voice whispered.

_'Not your fault...'_ Kagome responded mentally.

Now here she was, lying on the cold ground, Yazi right beside her. "What-what happened?"

"You were being drowned, but it looked like your guardian angel saved you," Yazi said and helped Kagome up.

"Guardian angel?" Kagome asked and sat up, with the help of Yazi. "Was that blood?"

"Yeah, it was Kagome. It was blood."

Kagome shivered and stood up, pulling Yazi up with her carefully. "How's your leg?"

"Fine."

--

The two females left the hospital room, and walked down the hallways, intending on leaving this hospital. Once outside the hospital shook and turned into dust, floating with the wind. An old, abandoned building stood there, with boarded up windows and doors.

"That hospital was a fake. It held dead patients who died in the hospital and could not move on. The doctors there were alive, but they were possessed by the dead spirits and died soon after. They were supposed to kill us, but we survived. You were protected by a spirit Kagome."

"Your not Yazi are you..."

"I am Izayoi..."

--

At Kagome's home, a note laid innocently on Kagome's bed, waiting to be read.

--

"Why Kinamori! Why did you do such a thing?!" a man yelled at his wife as she wrapped a thin blanket around her small frame. On the woman's left, another man quickly pulled his pants over his exposed hips.

"I wanted to feel loved Tashin! And he loved me! You never touched me if you can help it-" Kinamori, the wife, stopped when her husband's eyes turned red.

"You sure about that dearest?" Tashin's voice turned demonic. "I'll show you some love..."

Kinamori screamed when her husband brutally murdered the other man with a dagger. "Chiko! Tashin, why did you do that...?"

"I'll show you that love sometimes can kill my sweet..."

Kinamori gasped when her husband's blunt nails turned into dangerously sharp claws.

"Let us play a 'lil game of tag shall we?" Tashin's face contorted painfully and then his eyes permantely glowed black. "Run my sweet..."

Kinamori wasted no time, she got up and ran out of the abandoned hut that was in a forest. She started screaming and headed towards the village, where she knew a festival was taking place.

"Help me! Please!" Kinamori screeched. A roar sounded from her left and she ran faster, the thin blanket billowing behind her.

"No one can help you. Only you can help yourself, but can you save yourself from the one you made a commitment to?" a monotone voice asked.

"I want to live! Please! I'm sorry!" Kinamori pleaded and she tripped over a rock. Tears of fear, pain and anguish coursed down her dirty cheeks.

"A bit too late don't you think dearest?" a man appeared, a man that was not Kinamori's husband, but still is. His eyes flashed its original brown hue, and he lost all his demonic features. "Kinamori? What happened?"

Kinamori slowly got up and rushed towards her husband. She hugged him with all her might, crying tears of relief now. "I'm sorry baby! I'm so sorry..."

Tashin rose a confused eyebrow and he remembered how his very own wife, slept with another man. His eyes screamed betrayal, but he embraced the woman back, forgiving her. He loved her, but he was afraid to show it. Afraid that his enemies would kill his wife, so he had to distance himself.

"I'm sorry too Kinamori. I'm sorry for not giving you the love you rightfully deserve. I'm sorry..."

--

"Kagome!" Izayoi yelled out, concern etching her usually calm face. "Hey, you alright? You just blacked out when you decided to lean on this wall..."

Kagome was pulled up from the wall when Izayoi grabbed her, shaking her from the 'dream'. "I'm awake!"

Izayoi showed a ghost smile. "Sorry. I was worried when you just went in a sort of a trance when you leaned on the wall."

"It's okay. I'm still a bit shaken up from everything that has happened since I moved here," Kagome replied.

The moon still hung high in the sky, as stars danced around the dull glowing orb, lighting the path of the two females. The town they were in was pretty much dead. A few homeless people sleeping in the corners, prostitutes waiting to be picked up, rats scurried about. A few cars zooms by, not really paying attention to what part of Tokyo he or she is in. Most buildings here were rundown, abandoned or turned into some sort of grow-op, hidden from the cops. Kagome's been in this part of town many times actually. This was where she worked at, well the area is. Pretty safe huh? No.

Kagome turned to look at the building she was leaning on. It was of course, an abandoned shack, with a broken sign that had graffit all over it.

"Sword's Point," Kagome read out loud, her eyes widening. "What the hell?"

"What's wrong?" Izayoi asked, her curious eyes turning towards a wide-eyed, gaping-mouthed Kagome.

"They closed this down! They closed down my job!" Kagome screamed, waking up some of the homeless, and having some on-lookers eye her with a weird expression.

Izayoi looked at Kagome oddly. "Kagome, this place has been closed down for around 3o years."

Kagome froze. "What? Closed down for 3o years? But, I was here, just two days ago! That can't be possible! Tell me what you know about this place Ya- Izayoi."

"This place was originally built as a medical hut back in the feudal era, but it was soon abandoned by the owner when he became quite popular with his healing abilties. From the stories that circle around this shack, I heard that a woman slept with another man, while her husband was out. Decades later, two males turned this abandoned hut into a place where people can buy, or trade swords here. They closed it down when the store didn't get much money or profit or whatever. It's been closed down since then."

Kagome's mind was clicking. The place where she worked at, has been closed for 3o years, but she and Inuyasha and Sesshomaru ran the store. Not to mention, Izayoi's story of this shack was what Kagome saw, even though the dream was more detailed. Kagome sighed and leaned on the building again, and her mind went blank, and her brown and blue eyes dulled their usual sharp colour.

"Kagome!" Izayoi cried, and Kagome heard, but it sounded like she was too far for the young girl too reach.

--

"Goodbye my dearest," Tashin's voice turned back into the demonic voice.

Kinamori struggled against her husband's hold, but she released a blood-curdling scream as the monster of her husband plunged his clawed hands deep in her chest, and pulled out her beating heart. Blood spurted everywhere, staining the green grass and proud trees. Kinamori looked in the black voids her husband's eyes used to be, but it was too late, her spiritual father's voice rang loud in her ears.

_"If someone you love has abnormally red eyes, they have been possessed, but they have a chance at gaining their control over their body back, but it's unlikely. If their eyes turns black, they're lost. Dead..."_

_'I fell for it. I'm sorry my Tashin. I hope, we can live another life up in the other worlds. Just you and me, and no one else. Funny, how I realized my mistake once I have been killed...'_ Kinamori thought before she let go of life, her half-lidded eyes staring at nothing.

Tashin's body slumped over his dead wife's bleeding body, and a masked-man stood over the two dead bodies. Tashin's slack hand held Kinamori's dead heart. The masked man knelt down and instead of ripping their eyes out, he ripped the man's heart and placed it within his wife's pale hands. In the other man's hand, the masked man inserted a small note and left the bleeding couple on the forest floor.

_Here lies a traitorous wife _

_her broken husband _

_And broken hearts_

_--_

Kagome's dull eyes sparked with its brightness and she gasped. That vivid, bloody, heart-broken vision replayed itself in the teen's mind over and over again. The teen looked at the building and she leaned again, concentrating to go to a specific time period.

_'I have the power, to touch items and see the past through it. Let's see the shack's past 30 years ago...'_

The face of the masked-man appeared in Kagome's blank mind.

_'You will never know the truth, and by then, it would be too late...'_

--

Kagome screamed when pain exploded in her mind. Izayoi rushed towards the screaming girl and stopped when Kagome started to shake.

"Get out of my mind!" Kagome whispered and clutched her head.

_'What a horrible past...abandoned by your own father? He loved another woman while he was with your mother? Interesting...'_ the masked man's voice said.

"I said get out! Stop going through my memories!"

Izayoi grabbed a hold of the shaking teen. "Kagome! What's going on?!"

"He-he's in my he-ad!" Kagome said. The pain in her head was painful. The masked man found a way to get in her mind, and he started inflicting pain.

_'I had my fun. I must bid you farewell child. I hope we do this again though, but never see the past, what you might find out might shock you...'_

The pain in the girl's mind subsided and she stood there, panting as Izayoi worried over her. "Kagome? You okay?"

Kagome looked at Izayoi and said, "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go to a hotel or something..."

The two females started walking, not noticing a ghost face of a child.

"He's coming to get him Kagome," the ghost child said, her black, pig-tails swaying to the invisible wind. Her brown and blue eyes stared at the older version of herself sadly. "Your losing everybody to him. You have to stop him..."

A chain appeared and wrapped itself around the child's neck, dragging her to the ground and she went willingly. The child's two different coloured eyes glared at the chain, but did nothing and she disappeared.

--

The sun started rising, casting the dark sky with streaks of pink, orange, yellow and red. Kagome laid on her hotel bed, thinking about last night.

_'I have the power to see the past of objects I can touch, subconciously or if I concentrate harder. The masked man got in my mind and he started going through my memories and he made my head hurt,'_ Kagome thought. She looked at the sleeping woman on the other bed and thought back to the conversation they had before they went to bed.

_'Yazi, your officer friend only comes out during the day. I come out during the night,'_ Izayoi said and fell asleep, not leaving any room for Kagome to ask any questions.

"Ever since I moved here, my life has been more screwed up than usual..." Kagome murmured and turned on the T.V. She surfed through the channels, nothing really catching her attention. A knock on the door made Kagome jump and she grabbed Yazi's dagger on the desk beside her bed.

Kagome stood up, the dagger in ready position and she flung the door opened, her dagger poised above her head. She dropped her arms and smiled nervously.

"Uh hum. Um, sorry 'bout that. I was just...just practicing for a play! Yeah! A play!" Kagome lied.

The short man that stood on her doorstep smiled, fear evident on his middle-aged face. "Ahh, sure. Well, this postcard was given to me to give to you. Bye."

Kagome took the postcard and watched the man run away from the door. The postcard was from Hawaii! Kagome closed the door and sat in one of the chairs. She read the postcard her family finally sent her.

_Dear love,_

_sorry i hadn't contacted you for quite some time. We were so busy with all the activites going on hawaii! We are having so much fun here! We wish you were here with us. Grandpa and Souta says hi and we all miss you so very much! Talk to you soon!_

_-Mum_

Kagome eyed the printing with confusion. usually, her mother writes things by hand, instead of typing it all up.

"Kagome, why do you have my dagger?" Yazi's tired voice echoed in the teen's ears.

"Umm, practicing for a play?"

"Ye-no."

Kagome sighed and handed Yazi her dagger, who strapped it against her right calf. "It's dangerous to play with these things kiddo."

"I'm 18!" Kagome huffed. "My father figure taught me how to handle weapons!"

"Father figure?" Yazi rose an eyebrow and started making herself some coffee.

"My real father was a cheater. He slept with many women during his marriage with my mother secretly. When she found out, she divorced him. My mother had custody over my 'lil bro and my father had custody over me. I ran away though, and I became a street urchin. A met a man who was dying and I fixed him up.  
I started following him and we just grew closer. I started calling him "dad". Then he died in a senseless fight. My mother found me and she brought my dad to court and blah blah blah."

Yazi nodded and sipped her coffee and cringed in disgust. "This is nasty stuff."

"Then don't drink it..." Kagome's voice drifted off when she saw a ghost child lying on her bed, holding the remote. The ghost child turned her head and she motioned the older girl to sit beside her. Kagome stood up and sat beside the ghost child. The child had a sad smile on her translucent face and she turned towards the T.V. She flipped the channels and stopped at the news. Kagome watched the T.V. and Yazi watched with huge eyes. The T.V. was changing channels by itself and the remote is floating! Friggin' **_floating_**!

"I am here at a former grow-op, where a man, Shitoku Tachidi was murdered brutally in an abandoned warehouse. Mr. Tachidi had his heart literally placed in a decapitated woman's hand. No one knows who the murderer is, but the word "Traitor", was written everywhere in his house, in his blood-"

Kagome grabbed the remote from the ghost child and turned the T.V. off. She could feel the tears in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.

"Kagome? Is eveything all right?" Yazi asked and sat beside the sniffling girl, not knowing she just sat through the ghost child.

The ghost child got up and looked at her older self before disappearing.

"That was my dad," Kagome said quietly, and leaned in the older woman's comforting body. "He was murdered. Even though we didn't get along, he's still my dad..."

--

"Do you think she will make it?" a feminine, childish voice asked.

"Depends right now. She found out she has the power to see the past of objects," a masculine, but childish voice answered.

"Do you think she will save us?" the girl asked.

"I dunno. She can see dead people. She might think she's going crazy, or she might believe it and do something," the guy answered again.

"I hope she will be okay. I hope she doesn't get herself in too much trouble..."

"She's you! Obviously she'll get herself in trouble. Look at the situation she's in! You helped her find out her father was murdered! The-"

"Dead cannot help the living. Yeah, I know, but..."

"You wanted to save your older self from the pain? Your not the only one anyways. There are more dead helping the living..."

"She'll save you. I just know it...she'll save you," the girl smiled and grabbed the boy's hand. The two ghost children walked off into the fog, and they were surrounded by a bright light and vanished.

--

"I hate the library," Yazi grumbled. "It's so...so..."

"Librarish?" Kagome asked. She cried quietly in Yazi's arms back in the hotel, instead of bottling her emotions up.

"Yeah!"

"It's a library. Besides, don't you officers do these type pf things?" Kagome asked as she skimmed the shelves of books.

"No. We are given the documents and stuff..."

Kagome and Yazi were in the local library, looking (well Kagome is), information about the past of Tokyo, concerning the murderers back then.

"Stop touching the books and zoning out. We have a limited time here-" Yazi stopped in mid-sentence when Kagome started looking at her intensely. "Kagome? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Kagome didn't mind that Yazi was just whining about coming to the library, but the hairs on the back of her neck rose. She turned her head and she saw another ghost child, except this one looked like a youkai. He had green untrusting eyes, orange, poofy hair tied in a ponytail with a bow. He wore an ancient kimono and he sat atop Yazi's right shoulder. He smiled mischievously and he pulled a string out of many in one of his small hands.

Kagome's eyes widened when the shelves of books on the upper level began falling.

"AHHHH!" a child screamed.

Kagome turned her head at the scream and saw a frightened child watch the heavy bookcase fall from the upper level towards his shaking frame. Kagome dashed towards the boy and pushed him out of the way. She noticed that no one shouted for the child to be saved, but they looked at the falling bookcase with worry.

The ghost youkai child watched and when Yazi got up to save the teen girl from the impending doom, the ghost child pulled another string and Yazi sat back in her chair. The officer struggled against the invisible binds and watched with horror.

"Kagome! Are you suicidal? Don't save a stupid bookcase! Get out of there!"

The ghost child pulled another string and watched with boredom. Kagome watched the bookcase come closer to her and she knew she didn't have enough time to escape, but she would rather die trying than die without trying. She took a step and screamed, the bookcase fell atop the girl and all was quiet. Everybody watched the bookcase and willed the girl from beneath to get up and prove that she was alive. The ghost child's mischievous smile disappeared and he vanished from Yazi's shoulder.

--

Kagome opened her eyes with effort. When she took a step, she felt the gound give way and she fell into this dark, drippy, grimy nasty place. She slowly got up, wincing at the pain that shot up her back. "Oww..."

Kagome tried to stand up, but she hit her head against the ceiling. "Oww again!"

She clutched her head and rubbed it tenderly. She started creeping forward, and she felt that the ground that she was kneeling on had a slippery and sticky substance. "Oh god, I hope it's not- it is! EWWWW! This is so unhygenic!"

Kagome stuck out her tongue in disgust. She placed her hands on the low ceiling above her head and she pushed. And pushed. And pushed. The ceiling that dropped her here would not budge. Kagome sighed and started screaming. She stopped a few seconds later, knowing no one would hear her.

"There's only one way to go. Backwards or forwards..." Kagome mumbled. "I'm going to go forwards."

Kagome slowly started crawling in the small space, cringing at the smell and feel of the nasty urine in this place. Five minutes later, Kagome saw a dim light farther up and she crawled faster, hoping it would lead her back to the outside world. Her hopes were crushed when the dim light was only a flickering green fire- wait, green fire?

Kagome eyed the fire with confusion, bt she continued on, more torches of green fire lighting her way. Hey, at least she wasn't in the dark, urinated space. She continued crawling, and the space slightly grew, but it started slanting downwards until Kagome couldn't her hold weight no more and gravity took control.

"AHHHHHH! HOLY POOP-CRAPPERS!" Kagome screamed as she continued sliding down the bumpy, uncomfortable ground. "NOT FUN!"

The screeching girl slowed down to a stop and landed onto a squishy object. The teen stopped her screeching when she gained her footing and she shakily stood up. Yet again, she screamed when she found out what she landed on: a dead body.

"WHY DO I KEEP FINDING DEAD BODIES EVERYWHERE!?" Kagome shouted and she slowly backed away, only to bump into another body, this time, a dead child's body.

"Hi there!" a high pitched voice cried out.

Kagome turned around and saw the ghost youkai child floating in front of her. Her eyes flicked at the child's body and it clicked.

"That's your body isn't it?"

"Sure is! And that over there is my momma and my papa is over there..." the child pointed.

"You were the one who made all those bookshelfs fall!" Kagome accused. " On top of a child no less!"

"That child is dead anyways. He always was, before you even pushed him out of the way. Did you not notice the people who stared at you with shock? What they saw was a crazy teen who jumped in front of a falling bookcase randomly. They did not see the child because he is dead."

"What? Why was he...I'm so confused!" Kagome muttered and dropped to her knees, staring at the dead bodies. "Why did you bring me here?"

The ghost youkai looked at the teen with his michievous aqua demonic eyes. "I wanted to see if you can see the dead."

"I saw you didn't I?"

"Yeah, but I wanted it to be more fun! So I asked that boy to help me do my plans!" the child laughed with no emotion.

"Couldn't I have followed you into a secluded place or something?"

"No. If we did that, there would be no fun in it. And that officer friend of yours would follow. Don't want her know that you can speak to the dead or else she might think your crazy and well, you won't have any friends!"

"Why do you want me?" Kagome asked, eyeing the dead child.

The mischievous look in the child's eyes disappeared and was replaced with seriousness and sadness. "I want you to help me find the killer of my parents..."

--

The invisible bonds released the woman and she rushed towards the bookcase and her fallen friend. "Kagome!"

Many on-lookers helped Yazi take the bookshelf off the girl and when they did, Kagome's body only held minor cuts, nothing serious.

"She's alive! The girl's alive!" a man cried out and cheers and applauds where heard.

"Shush! This is a library!" a librarian cried out.

--

"Why me? What can I do? Can't you go to the police?" Kagome asked, dread filling her.

"You can see, hear and communicate with the dead! Not only that, but you can look at the past of objects! I can't go to the police because they don't belive in all this ghostly dead stuff!"

"Psychics?" Kagome offered.

"They can only give hints, they can't give out the full story, besides, I found you and I felt too lazy to find anyone else with abilities like you."

"But I just figured out how to use all the powers- EEK!"

"What?" the ghost child huffed.

"Spider! A **_ghost spider_**!" Kagome screamed and started panicking, until the child killed it. "Thanks. As I was saying, I only figured out to use these powers I just realized I always possessed. I can't go around helping the dead!"

"I can't move on until I find out my parent's murderer. I want to move on. Besides, you can say this is your training for the real thing!" the child smiled, but it didn't reach his dead eyes.

_'Real thing...?'_ Kagome thought. "Since the dead can see the destiny or fate of the living...I'll do it, if you answer a question for me."

The child lost his smile and waited for the human girl to ask.

"Who is trying to kill me? Why is he killing all these people?" Kagome asked.

The child sighed. "The dead has rules to follow. I cannot specifically give you the answer, or else I'll be changing your fate."

Kagome's hopeful smile fell off her face and she looked down.

"But," the child began, "I can give you a hint... or give you something that might or will help..."

Kagome's smile came back on her face, and the child smiled, for real this time. "Really? Thank you..."

"Shippo! Call me Shippo, Kagome!" Shippo exclaimed proudly.

Kagome nodded and stood up, dusting her dirty clothing. "Your a youkai? But aren't they gone?"

"Yep! Fox youkai! We existed long long long ago! So of course when we die, we would go to the other worlds as a youkai or a hanyou!" Shippo boasted. "I'll help you after you help me find the murderer."

Kagome's smile fell off her face and she crossed her arms. "What if I help you and you don't help me?"

"The dead has to be fair."

Kagome nodded. "Ok, what do I have to do?"

"You have to come with me to the border between the living and dead: Limbo..."

--

His terrified eyes scanned the room he was in. They thought he was crazy. They thought he was mental. They thought he lost his mind. They thought he needed therapy. Therapy didn't help him, it just made him worse. Every night, when he fell asleep, he would be plagued with these nightmares, all these bloody images. He would hear laughter, and this demonic voice. It scared him and when he woke up, he swore he saw the wounds inflicted on the people in his dreams were copied to his body in reality.

Everyday, he would hear different voices; frightened, pleading voices, asking if they can have another chance. They weren't given another chance. The pleading voices vanishes, and he knew, the owner of the voice wasn't a part of this world no more, but the next. After hearing the pleading voices, he would black out and find himself covered in blood, and dead bodies. Robotically, he would put the dead bodies away, leaving no trace of his being in the crime scene.

He would also find a note in his room and he would take it and hide it. Unconciously, he would place the note he found into the dead man or woman's hand.

It scared him. He hears these voices, and then he would go and kill the owners and he didn't even knew they existed! Maybe he is crazy. These binds cannot keep him any longer, they would break and he would be free. He would go on a killing spree and he was sick of it. His last victim was a middle-aged man. He had one blue eye and one brown eye. His name was Shitoku Tachidi.

The patient saw the beautiful sun and he heard it. A female's voice. She sounded calm, but if you listened closer, you can hear her voice shake slightly.

_'The past is the past. Allow me to do what I please...'_

The patient felt himself break the binds that held him, he felt his blood run faster, his heart pump harder and his world turned black.

_'Leave me alone-!'_

--

Dunna! i wanna thank those who have REVIEWED! LIKE **_OH EM GEE_**! I LOVE YOU ALL! and i'm really really happy that all you guys like this story so far! I hope you guys like this chapter, took me friggin forever to get it the way I liked. Took me like 5 tries until i ended up with this and i really liked this chap, so i hope you guys liked it too!! :D

YEEE! WE'RE GONNA BEAT RUNAWAY ANGEL'S REVIEW CAPACITAAAAAY YOOOO! Thanks again for all yer reviews! SALAMAT PO!

review&review

-Stealthy Jessica


	5. Explanations

**Notes**

author's note: Ahahahaha okay, the ghost boy with Shippo and the doctor are only playing minor parts so is the librarian sorry bout that!

--

Chap 5- Explanations

--

Accompanying the note that laid on Kagome's bed at her home, was a picture of her father and the decapitated hand.

--

"You failed me Goshinki. I let you live on this world and you failed me! You possessed that doctor and I ordered you to kill the woman, using him!" the masked man cried out in frustration.

Goshinki cowered in fear. The dead cannot physically harm or kill someone who is alive, they need a host. He possessed that woman's doctor, and tried to kill the woman. The woman ruined his host's body and he was forced to leave.

Goshinki died long ago, but this man called him to the world of the living, to aid him to kill for a purpose, a purpose he still does not know to this day. Goshinki killed many, ordered by the man that is now angry at him. The man that is yelling at him, that has been dead for quite a long time as well.

The masked man wore a mask to cover his identity, even though he is that of the dead. His long hair was cut and swayed above his broad shoulders. Goshinki knew when the masked man was alive, he killed many, for what? He does not know. Though, the masked man is dead now he orders his minions, him including, to kill the ones he demands, and to bring back their eyes. Goshinki cringed. This is one psychotic man he has ever met. Who wants to keep people's damn eyes?!

Goshinki also knows that his master can possess someone to kill, but that's pretty rare. When his master does possess someone, he makes them think they've gone crazy. His master puts the voice of the one who will be killed in the host's mind and then that's when his master comes out and play. Once he have done using the body, he kills him or her and makes them work under him. Goshinki stared his master dead in the eyes, cringing what he saw there. Bloodlust, rage, anger, death and many more.

"I am sorry master," Goshinki whispered.

The masked man smirked behind his mask. "Sorry? When I want something to be done, I expect it to be done! Goshinki, you are worthless. Dead or alive."

Goshinki shivered when he felt the cold sting of the gate keepers come for him. He could see them circle around his hunched form before they pounced on him and dragged him to the other world. He screamed, begging for forgiveness. He knew he would not go to the place where all good souls go to, he would go to the exact opposite. He forgot to say, his master can call upon the gate keepers any time he wants. Why? Some work for him or were chained to his hellish soul until he can move on. Unlikely. Goshinki's screams disappeared and so did his ghostly figure.

"Cannot trust someone you don't know, even if you knew them for quite a long time," the masked man said.

"Inuyasha? Sesshomaru? Come," the masked man said and two ghostly figures appeared before him.

"You have called," both brothers replied.

"Kill the girl Kagome, and that woman friend of hers..."

--

"All her organs are disintegrating. The poor girl won't have much time to live..." the middle aged nurse whispered sadly and left the woman to her own thoughts.

"Kagome..." Yazi whispered as tears coursed down her cheeks.

That's not possible! Your insides don't turn into dust as a bookcase fall on top of you! Your body doesn't start shutting down suddenly with no proper explanation! Though, ever since Yazi has met Kagome, her life has never been making sense. What the people didn't know, the soul of Kagome has left her body and joined Shippo, leaving her alive yet fading body in the living world.

Yazi grabbed Kagome's limp, cold hand in her own. "Please, wake up...wake up..."

A spirit appeared beside Yazi and rested a ghostly hand on her trembling shoulder. "It'll be alright...shhhh, stop your crying...she'll be alright..."

Yazi felt a calming presence in the room and welcomed it. "Please, help her..."

The spirit nodded and disappeared, taking the calming presence Yazi held onto away.

"I'll try to help her the best I can mother..."

--

Black.

Nothing.

Empty.

Free.

That's what the girl felt when she opened her eyes and was met with an eternity sea of black. She didn't where she was or why she was here. She couldn't remember what she did before she came to this place. She looked in her lap and saw herself flicker a few times. "Huh?"

"Kagome?"

Kagome looked up and saw her father figure, Akira Tama, stand a few feet away from her. "Dad?"

"It is you!" Akira exclaimed and ran towards his daughter (not biological). "What are you doing here kiddo?"

Kagome hugged the man who helped her put the pieces of her broken heart together. "I don't know. What are you doing here?"

"Kiddo, I'm dead."

Those three words rang loud and clear in Kagome's ears. Then everything from before rushed back in her mind.

"I'm dead..." Kagome whispered as her hold on Akira slackened slightly.

"Half dead kiddo, not fully so you still have a chance of returning back to the living world," Akira said.

"What are you doing here? Are you half dead too?" Kagome's sad eyes now glimmered hope. Hey, her father figure, Akira Tama has died seven years ago and he might have a chance at coming back with her and get married to her mother. A girl can dream right?

"No kiddo. I'm fully dead but I'm one of the gatekeepers here. There are trillions of gatekeepers all together, maybe even more. Us gatekeepers keep the dead, dead and we ask the half dead, such as you, if they want to move on, or if they have any regrets from their past life. If they do, we send them back to the world of the living as a spirit and they can tell their loved ones to move on that he or she are in a happy place. Or the half dead can apologize for hurting someone they loved."

Kagome nodded and gasped at the spirit behind Akira. "It can't be..."

Akira spoke again, "One of the souls who cannot move on was your father Kagome, Shitoku Tachidi."

Kagome broke the embrace she had with Akira and stood, well more like floated awkwardly (sp?) in front of her biological father. "Hello father."

"Kagome, my daughter," Shitoku raised his dark translucent hand, which stopped Kagome from interupting him. "I want to say sorry for hurting your mother, your brother and you especially. Old habits were hard to break, but your mother knew what I did behind her back and she still stayed by my side. All those years, I always did and forever will love you my daughter. I am sorry and I ask for your forgiveness."

Kagome wanted to cry, but the dead or half dead cannot shed any tears. "I forgive you father. I love you too!"

Shitoku's ghostly figure lightened, not holding the black swirling within him no more. "Thank you my daughter. You were the first one to pop into my mind when I was killed..."

Kagome's eyes widened. Right, her father was murdered by someone. Kagome hugged her biological father, who in turn hugged her back. Shitoku and Kagome broke the contact and Shitoku turned to Akira, smiling. "Thank you for fixing my daughter's broken heart. I am forever in debt to you in the next life."

Akira smiled. "No problem. Who cannot get attached to your little girl? She'll always be your little girl."

"Kagome, some words before we depart," Shitoku smiled sadly and continued, "Don't let him break you and don't give up. There are truths behind every lie and secrets, you just have to dig further..."

Akira and Kagome watched a blue and yellow light engulf Shitoku's ghostly figure before it disappeared, along with him.

"What does he mean by that?" Kagome asked Akira who shrugged.

"Kagome!" a voice screamed out. "Kagome! Over here!"

The two people turned their heads towards the voice and saw a fox kit floating towards them. "Kagomeeeeee!"

"Shippo!" Kagome cried out and allowed the ghost fox kit to rest in between her arms.

"I just realized something!" the fox kit panted. "You can just touch my parents' body and see who their killer is right? It's the past and you can see the objects of the past! right?"

Kagome's eyes widened. "You're right!"

"We only came to Limbo because Akira's job is to know who passes from one world to the next! He could've known if my murderer, who is dead, is amongst the living like I am!"

Kagome replied, "But I don't know if I can see a dead body's past..."

"It's worth a try kiddo. Besides, the farther you are away from your body, your body is fading from the living world..." Akira said before Kagome screamed.

"WHAT! WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?! I DON'T WANT TO DIE AT THE AGE OF 18 WHEN I NEED TO KNOW WHY I SEE SO MANY DEAD BODIES EVERYWHERE I GO!" Kagome screamed.

Shippo nodded and Akira waved his hand, a portal appearing. "Jump in there Kiddo-"

"I'll miss you Akira! I love you..." Kagome whispered before Shippo dragged her in the portal.

Akira smiled sadly and watched his daughter and her new friend disappear. "I love you too kiddo..."

--

"We were supposed to get engaged!" a handsome lightning youkai cried out. "You went against my back and and that is what happened!" the youkai pointed at the small kit in the trembling woman's arms. "I come back with my brother to see you have mated with a fox youkai and you have a child together!"

"Hiten! I do not love you! I tried but I cannot force my heart to love someone! Our family wishes we wed and I rebelled! I love him and you killed him!" the fox woman cried out and she clutched her sleeping fox kit to her bloodied chest. "Leave us be Hiten!"

The fox youkai cried harder when she saw her mate's dead body (fox form, not humanoid form) wrapped around her ex fiance's brother's waist. She noticed that a spirit entered Hiten's body and she cried harder. "Please don't do this..."

When Hiten spoke, it was not his usual angered voice, but a low, husky calm voice. "I'm sorry my sweet. Love is supposed to hurt, sometimes kill. You are a very rebellious one to go against your family's wishes to wed this man...for that, I will kill you. You broke his heart..."

"Brother?" the other lightning youkai said. "Are you okay?"

"Silence impudent fool!" Hiten slashed his own brother's body, his blood spurting out on everyone. "And I will enjoy breaking you..."

The fox youkai screamed when her sleeping, now crying fox kit was roughly taken away from her. She saw how Hiten sliced his small body, she witnessed how his screams echoed in her ears, she saw one hand reach towards her in help, then fell beside his still body. His eyes were closed the whole time.

"First my mate, now my child..." the fox youkai whispered before she roared and charged towards the smirking, possessed youkai. "DIE!"

Hiten smirked and cracked his knuckles. He caught the charging fox youkai in his grasp and started choking her. With his other hand, he started to slash her body. Her muffled screams fueled his bloodlust until he was bathing in the dead youkai's blood. The spirit possessed the lightning youkai thrust his own hand in his chest and tore out his heart. The spirit left, smirking all the way, his mask flapping against his face.

"Farewell..."

--

Kagome gasped and tore her hand away from the dead bodies. She saw Shippo trembling in her arms and soothed the depressed ghost child. "Shhh baby, shhh..."

"Thank you...Ka-Kagome!" Shippou wailed and clutched on the girl. "Thank-thanks! I-I'm really hap-happy!"

Kagome continued to soothe the distraught child. "Shh, I didn't mean for you to come with me to the past and see how your parents' died. Shhh, I'm sorry."

"No-not fault!" Shippo cried out as he continued to clutched on the girl some more. "Me gra-grateful!"

Kagome's figure started flickering and Shippo noticed it. "Kagome! You hafta get back to your body or else you're fully...fully dead!"

Shippo ignored the shock look on his new friend's face and a bunch of strings appeared in his small clawed hand. He pulled one of the strings and the girl felt a tug.

"Bye bye Kagome. Imma miss you..." Shippo whispered before giving Kagome a kiss goodbye on the cheek. "Thank you..." and the ghost child disappeared.

Kagome felt another tug and she blacked out.

--

The slack, limp body jolted and started shaking, rattling the beds and the monitor. Yazi rose her head and started panicking at the convulsing body.

"Doctor! Help! Anyone!" Yazi cried out and a bunch of nurses and doctors rushed in.

"Doctor, her blood pressure is rising quickly! Her heart pulses are increasing dangerously! The girl won't have long to live!" a nurse cried out.

Nurses rushed the wailing Yazi out of the room, trying to soothe the screaming woman. "KAGOME! NO! KAGOME!"

The nurses attempted to comfort the distraught woman, who refused the comfort. "Let me go!"

The doctors tried everything to reduce Kagome's heart beats and return her high blood pressure to normal. The shaking girl's body temperature also began to rise very quickly, making the doctor's task to save her even more harder.

"Her kidneys, her right lung and her bladder and small intestine has shut down doctor! We have no transplants to save her Doctor Miroku!" one doctor cried and Kagome's blank eyes stared at the doctors, not focusing on anything.

"Damn it!" Doctor Miroku swore. "Her body temperature and blood pressure are going down now! Her heart stopped! Sango, take the AED (automatic external defibrulator (sp?) ) out now!"

Doctor Sango reacted quickly and took out the AED and handed it to the head doctor of this operation, while the rest of the doctors ripped the front of Kagome's hospital gown open.

"5oo joules! Clear!" Miroku yelled and pressed the pads of the AED upon Kagome's still chest. "6oo joules Sango!"

Sango flicked a few switches and Miroku lifted the pads up before he planted them down on Kagome's chest again. "Clear!"

Miroku did that a couple of times, trying to revive the heart, but it was no use. Kagome's body failed to respond and the heart monitor's long, dreaded beep meant the girl was dead.

"She's gone..." Doctor Sango whispered.

Kagome's still body gave another jolt and her blank eyes were filled with life. She gasped and her body arched, as something entered the arched girl's body, unknown to all the doctors, except one.

--

She felt herself falling. The same feeling she felt before she met Shippo. Realization hit her. The feeling of falling is when your soul departs from your body. That's what happened to Kagome. When Shippo pulled a string, Kagome tried to escape from under the bookcase, but she felt like the ground collapsed from under her, when it was really her soul being tugged away from her body.

While her body was pinned from underneath the bookcase, her soul was placed in the place where she met Shippo. Now, she saw a whole range of colours flash in front of her eyes as her soul returned from the world of the dead to her body. Once her soul neared her body, the body started reacting violently. The body would start calling for the soul to come back within the dead shell, but the soul would float above the body, not wanting to be trapped in a body.

Piece by piece, Kagome's soul slowly entered the body. Kagome could feel pain as her shut down organs and systems tried to repair itself once a bit of a soul was inside. The girl shook under the doctor's care and she could feel herself fading from reality. She felt her heart stop and she opened her eyes in pain and shock. She felt the cold air bite her exposed chest and she heard the muffled screams of Yazi. She felt the electric shocks try to jolt her heart back into pumping blood around the body.

She felt the jolts a couple of times until she heard that dreadful long, high beep. She knew her heart was dead and black started to inch in her unfocused vision, until the rest of her soul slowly made a home within her body. She arched her back upwards as her whole soul finally was accustomed to being encased in a small space ( a/n: "encased in a small space" that rhymed! ahahahha moving on...XD...). Her body dropped back down on the bed and her heart started beating and she started breathing.

Kagome sighed internally. That was a close call. A _really_ close call. If Shippo hadn't reminded her (since she was busy comforting a sad, yet happy fox kit) she would've been dead. Gone. And she wouldn't have had a chace to find out who's killing all these people.

--

The doctors gasped, all but one. His indigo eyes couldn't believe what he saw. That was why the girl's organs started shutting down suddenly without an explanation.

He saw a translucent orb floating above the thrashing body of Kagome Higurashi. He didn't see the soul at first because his doctor instincts naturally took over. Once the girl's heart stopped beating after trying the AED and restarted itself and she started breathing, did he use his spiritual powers to see the white, translucent orb in the room.

"Doctor Miroku?" a female doctor said as she covered the patient's exposed chest. "The girl's alive. It's a miracle."

Doctor Miroku saw the look in the femalem doctor's eyes. He gulped and smiled sheepishly. She knew that he knew how the girl lived and she wanted him to tell her.

"Yes it is. Ummm, you may all go, but Doctor Sango," Miroku said and the doctors rushed out, but the one named Sango.

Yazi rushed in, pushing all the nurses off of her. She rushed towards Kagome's bed and grabbed her warm hand. "Kagome sweetie?"

The two doctors wiped their foreheads and sighed simutaneously. The sun began to set and the moon took over, casting the world in a mysterious glow. Yazi felt herself pulse a few times before the eyeless woman, Izayoi, took over. The two doctors noticed the slight change, especially Doctor Miroku.

"Hello there miss..."

"Please call me Yazi," Izayoi said. She didn't want anybody else to know that she shared a body with someone else.

"Yes, of course. Yazi, Kagome will be able to go home, but she will need to have an eye on her," Doctor Miroku said.

"This is Doctor Miroku Houshi and I am Sango Taijiya (sp?)," Doctor Sango introduced. "We will keep an eye on Kagome, just in case something like this happens again."

Yazi nodded but then objected. "Wait! I am fully capable of taking care of Kagome!"

Doctor Sango nodded and replied, "You need money to take care of yourself and Kagome. Where is her family anyways?"

Kagome's small voice spoke up. "Hawaii. A Vacation..."

The doctors nodded and Yazi glared at the doctor, but her eyes softened up when she looked at the frail Kagome.

"Fine. Please make sure she's okay though," Yazi said.

--

It was 1o:37 pm. Yazi has left Kagome in the care of the two doctors when she left for work at 8:oo pm. The three people were in the hotel, talking about random things. The doctors and the girl bonded pretty easily, except Kagome found out that Doctor Miroku was a pure pervert. Kagome's face blushed red when she realized that when they used the AED on her, Miroku got a full view of her chest. Sango smacked the smiling pervert on the head and Kagome screamed and slapped him.

"Don't worry my lovely Sango, you'll always be my one and only!" Miroku said with a smile on his face.

Sango grabbed a pillow from Kagome's bed and used that to repeatedly hit him. Kagome slowly inched away from the violet girl and the perverted doctor.

"Yeah, I'll be in the bathroom..." Kagome said and scurried off.

"Great! You scared the poor girl off you freak!" Sango cried out and jumped on Kagome's bed.

"Your words deeply wound me. It struck me right in my heart," Miroku said and tapped his chest. "A freak? I'll show you a freak in bed my lady."

Sango's war cry echoed in the hotel and Kagome had to cover her ears as she went pee. "Whoa, they are one interesting couple..."

"We're not a couple Kagome!"

"Liar," Kagome whispered and giggled.

--

He knew he fell in love with a human girl; the day he saved her from drowning in a blood-filled sink. He's been watching her ever since, that was until he saw her soul leave the world of the living and enter the world of the dead when she was crushed under a bookcase. He was happy, now they can be together. He later realized, a dead fox kit pulled her soul out of her body to help him find who his murderer was.

He then waited and watched how the soul came back to the living world and dashed off to her fading body. He saw how her soul slowly went in the body and he thought she was dead, but her heart started pumping blood and she was breathing. He snapped his ghostly fingers. Damn, oh well, he will have her dead or alive as his woman.

Ever since the girl, who he found out was called Kagome, he has been attracted to her, even though he was that of the dead and she was alive. He watched as his woman got up and headed towards the bathroom, leaving the arguing couple in the living room. He waited until he heard the flush of the thing called a "Toilet", but the girl stayed in the bathroom.

He felt himself give way went he passed through the door and was met with the back of his woman's head. He tilted his head to get a better look at her butt, and the thing she wore under that short skirt thing she was wearing.

"PERVERT!" Kagome cried out when she saw a figure in the mirror and she turned around and was met with a ghostly face. Sango and Miroku barged in the bathroom, not knowing they slammed the door against a shocked spirit.

"Kagome!" Sango cried out and grabbed Kagome's shoulders. "What's wrong? Did a peeping tom peep on ya?"

Miroku looked around the bathroom and his eye stopped directly where the spirit was. Miroku couldn't see the dead, but he could feel their presence and he was feeling one right now. "Who's in here?"

Sango stopped shaking the dizzy girl and stared at her doctor friend with a confused expression on her face. "Miroku? You gone crazy or what? Maybe I hit you too hard..."

"A spirit is here with us, watching Kagome," Miroku said.

The spirit cursed and was about to leave when his woman's voice spoke up. "You were the one who saved me back in the abandoned hospital right?"

The spirit didn't know what to do. He could stay or leave and visit the girl later on. He now knows that his woman can communicate and see the dead.

Miroku and Sango looked at Kagome who was staring at the same spot Miroku was staring at. "Umm, let's go talk in the living room- wait! Don't leave! Please stay..."

The spirit had to stay. Kagome's voice was innocent and he couldn't ignore it. _'Damn it.'_

Kagome was the first one to walk out the bathroom, the spirit and the two doctors following. They all (not the spirit), sat on the bed in a circle and waited for someone to speak up.

"Kagome, you can see the dead?" Sango asked and broke the silence.

"And communicate with them too," Kagome replied and looked at the spirit floating beside her. "Please don't tell anyone."

"We won't Kagome. I can sense the dead, but I cannot see or communicate with them. Sango," Miroku turned his serious eyes towards the woman beside him. "Remember what happened at the hospital with Kagome? Somehow, her soul was ripped away from her body and her organs and systems started shutting down when her soul was gone. She was dieing, but not from getting crushed by a bookcase, but because her soul was too far from her body."

Sango nodded. "Kagome, Miroku is a monk and he has spiritual powers. I am one of the descendants of the youkai slayers back in the feudal era. We believe that the dead can communicate with us and stuff."

Kagome nodded and smiled. "So I'm not alone then."

The two doctors nodded their head and smiled. Sango asked the spirit, "Who are you?"

Kagome looked at the spirit and nodded him that he can answer. The spirit smiled a toothy grin. His long, black hair was tied in a high ponytail, his ice blue eyes twinkling, his pointed ears flicked towards the female doctor's question and his brown wolf tail swayed back and forth. Kagome heard him perfectly clear, but the two doctors couldn't hear the ghost, so Kagome said the spirit's name.

"His name is Kouga. He's a wolf youkai from the feudal era who died in battle with the Birds of Paradise."

Kouga was just floating around the hotel, playing with stuff. By curiosity, he took Sango's bag and started rummaging through it. To Sango and Miroku, all they saw were floating objects and Sango and Kagome blushed at what Kouga picked out of Sango's bag. Miroku grinned from ear to ear and laughed.

"What's this?" Kouga asked and sniffed the item in his hand. Kagome repeated what Kouga said and Sango and her stammered at the same time, while Miroku laughed.

"And you said you weren't a couple..."

"Well er..."

"I find this really amusing. It's called a condom. A condom can do m-"

The T.V. suddenly turned on, showing a bloodied face of a woman. "Say goodnight Kagome..."

Kouga turned and saw how blood started to appear on the walls, erupting a scream from Kagome. A note fluttered in the room through the opened door and landed on Kagome's lap. Her trembling hands slowly opened the note as blood started to fill the floor. Kouga looked over Kagome's shoulder and read what the peice of paper said. The two doctors watched Kagome, not knowing what to do.

_Time to let go and fall into the black abyss dearest Kagome_

The window shattered and bloody dead people started crawling in the room, their arms trying to reach the screaming girl. The females screamed and Kouga and Miroku grabbed the woman and tried to quiet them down. Sango quieted down and became enraged. Kagome on the other hand, started crying again.

"No! Not again!" Kagome cried out before a dead body threw her out the window.

"Kagome!" Sango, Miroku and Kouga yelled out. Three of them tried to jump through the window, but Sango and Miroku were gagged and were thrown in a closet. Kouga had a chain wrapped around his throat and a hole appeared and he disappeared through that.

--

Kagome looked at the pool below and saw it was blood, not water. She screamed but the other guests slowly lost their human quailties and gained the appearances of the dead. They roared and jumped out the windows, trying to grab the falling and squirming girl. Everyone landed in the bloody pool, trying to drown the thrashing girl.

Kagome didn't want to die. She needed to live. She needed to see her family's face once more. She needed to find out who the masked man is and why he keeps killing all these people. The more Kagome tried to escape, the more energy she lost and the dead bodies pinned her on the ground. Kagome opened her eyes and all she saw was red and felt someone's hand close around her throat. She blacked out, still pinned in the bloody water, surrounded by dead bodies.

--

Papers and blood were scattered about. The shaking woman was trapped in a corner in a secluded area in the station. A man stood in front of her with a bloody sword in his right hand. His red eyes were filled with hate and malice at the quivering woman in front of him. Her light violet eyes shone fear, but he also saw a deep sadness.

"The past is the past. Allow me to do what I please..." the woman whispered.

The man smiled and brought the sword down upon the screaming woman.

"Please spare me!" the woman screamed and she felt pain.

The man's smile widened when the woman's blood sprayed on his body. He was going to bathe in her blood if it was the last thing he did. The woman slumped on the ground as she clutched her chest. Red liquid spurted everywhere and she knew this body was going to fail her and her mission.

_'I'm sorry Yazi...'_

_'I'm dying aren't I?'_

_'Yes you are child. I am sorry I have caused you such trouble and agony...'_

_'It's okay Izayoi...'_

_'Goodbye, my reincarnation...'_

--

BAM! CHAP 5 DONE! i don't like this chapter... not really interesting to me. So chap 6 will come like in a few hours 'cause it is like...3:oo am so when I wake up i shall update ahahha :D

chap 6 will have more suspensyness! so don't quit on me yo!

thanks for so many reveiws and staying with me and this story ahahha

ps. i love the names InuToshKibaLover11 ahahah very stealthy XD

pss. I will explain the younger version of Kagome thing in the next chapter

psss. You guys will not know who the masked man until a few chapters after this one. I don't know when, but not in this one or the next... keep on guessing who it is though i wanna know who you think the masked man is! DUNNA! ahahah

review&review

-stealthy jessica


	6. Time's A Ticking

**Notes**

--

Chap 6- Time's A wasting...

--

There it was again. She felt someone applying pressure on her chest. She opened her eyes and saw a hand inside her chest. Inside her chest! She tried to scream, but she had no voice. Her eyes locked on a pair of golden, worried eyes. Then it clicked in her confused, disoriented mind. Inuyasha saved her from the bloody corpses and the blood filled pool. Why was he near that area anyways? And, what was in Inuyasha's hand? Why was Inuyasha's other hand **_inside _**her chest anyways?

"Inuyasha?" Kagome whispered painfully, ignoring the hand within her chest. "What's in your other hand?"

The golden eyed boy took his hand out of her chest and turned around, pocketing the object in his other hand in his pocket. "Nothing. You okay Kagome?"

"Yeah," Kagome said and sat up. Where was she? What is in the boy's hand , which is now in his pocket? Oh well. "Thank you for saving me..."

"Don't expect me to do that again," the boy huffed and crossed his arms.

"You squeezed my heart and sent shocks through it to start pumping again didn't you?" Kagome said and walked towards the stiff male. "Didn't you?"

Inuyasha nodded. "Yeah, so what of it?"

_'That's not normal. I'll talk to him about it later on, when's he's in a better mood. Who am I kidding? He's never in a good mood...' _"Thank you," Kagome said and hugged the shocked boy. "Did you know that the shop has been closed down for 3o years Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha didn't hug the girl, but leaned against her. He noticed she changed topic quite easily. "Yeah."

"That's why we didn't get any customers right? Because that place has been shut down. But why? It looked like it wasn't shut down and the way you and Sesshomaru dealt with it, it wasn't closed down. Then Sesshomaru said "Inuyasha, don't tell me you're scaring away all the customers!". What's that supposed to mean? And why did you and Sesshomaru like treat the shop like it was opened or something when it really was closed and-"

"Stop with the questions wench. I got to go," Inuyasha said and gently pushed the girl off of him and left through the door.

Kagome eyed her friend oddly. Inuyasha's appearance was bound to attarct some attention to himself the girl just noticed. "How does he get his hair so smooth like that?"

First, Kouga saved her, then Inuyasha from drowning in blood. They both used the same tactic to revive her. Oh damn! Why was Inuyasha's hand inside her chest!  
Kagome sat on her bed- her bed? When did she get home? Why was she home? She didn't want to be home! She quickly stood up and ran towards her door. She doesn't know her way in the house very well. She mostly slept in the living room so she didn't get lost.

Kagome ran down the hallway, but she then got lost, trying to find her way out of the house. "Oh no! This house is too damn huge! I'm lost and now I will die by the hands of some deranged, freakish killer who wants to kill me and keeps leaving dead bodies in my house!"

The girl began running in different directions, banging her fists against closed windows and doors that wouldn't budge (once more). "No! I don't want to be stuck in here! Inuyasha! Inuyasha are you still here? Help anyone! How did I get here in the first place?"

_Ring Ring_

Kagome froze and she turned her head down a hallway she didn't go through before.

_Ring Ring_

_'That's a phone ringing. There's a phone in this house? I don't remember mom or someone putting a phone in here. And I don't have a cell either...'_ Kagome thought and she slowly inched away from the dark hallway.

_Ring Ring Ring_

Kagome didn't want to go down that hallway, so she walked away from the hallway and ended up somewhere else in the house. This hallway seemed like no one has stepped in this part before. Unlike the rest of the hallways that looked pretty modern, this one looked like it was still in the past. The old wood walls had many chips and holes in it.

Kagome squeaked when she saw a rat scurry from one hole to another hole. Kagome walked deeper in the hallway and stopped in front of a door. Well, it was the only door in this hallway. There was a small window on the ceiling, casting a scary glow and creating shadows. With each step the girl took, the floorboards creaked under her weight.

_'Is there a basement beneath me?' _Kagome thought.

Kagome didn't know why she was walking into a place that she does not know. For all she knew, there could be another dead body behind that door or something.  
Her mind told her to go and the girl obediently went, fear, adrenaline and maybe the key to why the killer wants her dead lay behind that closed door. Kagome reached a sweaty hand out and grasped the doorknob. She twisted it, pulled and screamed in frustration. The door was lock!

_'Damn it!'_ Kagome cursed inwardly. "It's locked and I need to find a key or bust this door down.'

Kagome walked backwards and turned around. With determined, yet fearful eyes, the girl ran down the hallway and pushed all her weight against the adamant door that did not move. Kagome did that a couple of times, ending with a couple of bruises on her right shoulder. "Oww..."

The girl bent down and looked in the keyhole. In the room, all she saw was stairs that led downstairs.

_'Great, this house is bigger than I thought!'_ Kagome mumbled in her mind. _'Just great!'_

_Ring Ring_

Kagome's eye widened. The phone's ringing still! Where is it coming from? Why is it ringing? She doesn't know anybody who knows this house's phone number.

_Ring Ring_

Kagome slowly stood up and looked at the closed door.

_Ring Ring_

Kagome tried to calm herself. She needed to answer that phone. Why? She doesn't know, but her instincts were screaming at her to answer the ringing phone. Besides, people say that instincts saves people's lives, not lead them to danger. Right? Kagome sighed and slowly followed the ringing.

_Ring Ring_

Kagome's footsteps echoed in the empty, eerily creepy house. The girl heard the phone's persistant ringing and she continued following the said sound. Her heart was thumping loudly, beads of sweat were dripping down her temples and down her back. She clenched her sweaty palms and tried to control her irregular breathing.

_Ring Ring_

A few steps more and Kagome can hear the phone's ringing loud and clear. She turned a corner and there was the ringing phone, on a table. Kagome gulped and swallowed down the scream that wanted to tear out of her mouth.

There, holding the phone was an arm that had the words written in blood on the dried skin were, "_Answer or die dearest Kagome..._"

--

He opened his eyes and muffled his scream. Not again. No, no, no! He was dripping with blood, not his own, but the dead woman lying beside him. Her dull violet eyes were staring right at him. She was dead. Robotically, the man stood up and started to clean up the mess. The blood stains on the carpet would stain and people would find out that there was a murder right here.

The man took a note out of his black bag and placed it in the dead woman's slack and bloody hands.

The man stared guiltily at the dead woman and leapt away, not leaving any trace of his being there.

_'Good job son...'_

_'Get out of my head! You're killing all these people! I'm not!'_

_'They're going to find you son. They're going to charge you with first degree murder. You killed them all. The blood on your hands are living proof...'_

_'No! You made me do this! You made me kill all these people!'_ the man said and screamed when pain erupted in his body.

The man's body twitched and he fell on his knees on the roof of a house. _'Please, let me live...'_

_'No can do buddy boy! I must kill you like the rest of the people I used in the past. You're no use of me. I have a feeling that you will tell someone. But who can you tell? Who knows, but right now, I am losing trust in you...farewell...'_

_'No! **NO!**'_ the man screamed and he laid still on the roof's house, never to move again.

"Dear Bankotsu look at the bright side! Now you'll never be able to go to jail for killing all those people I made you kill. Poor poor Bankotsu..." the masked man's spirit said before he disappeared as the sun began to rise. The owners of the house's roof will find the dead body of Bankotsu later on in the day...

_Finally laid to rest _

_In the black pits of the heart _

_Forever she is mine _

_In the past _

_In the Future _

_In the living _

_In the dead _

_Ioyazi and Izayoi were one_

_Both were mine and still are _

_Kagome, you are next..._

Was written on the note in Yazi's dead, limp hand.

_--_

"Sweetie, I have a bad feeling about this area."

"You always get a bad feeling of every area we move in, geez."

"No, this one's like really bad though. The presence, the evil lurking in this area. Let's move!"

"Come on!"

"We just moved here! I ain't made of money y'know!"

"I don't want to die!"

"We won't die babe! You seriously needa relax love..."

The woman sighed, giving up. "Fine. We'll stay but if-"

"If your miko powers sense something wrong-"

"Like they are now."

"We shall pack all our already packed things and ditch this place."

"Let's move to Africa."

"...sure..."

The woman looked out her window and saw the creepy house beside her own house. That house, something's not right about it. Something evil is lurking, living within that house. The hairs on the back of her neck and arms stood up. Something bad is going to happen. She looked towards her humming husband. Something is going to happen to him, her love, her life. Something she will be powerless to stop.

_'Please protect us...'_ the woman prayed. Too bad the woman and her husband just stepped into their grave when they moved to a house on Hanah Street.

--

_Ring Ring_

That cursed ring and that cursed arm with that cursed message on it will stay in Kagome's mind for quite awhile. Kagome slowly walked towards the arm and the still ringing phone. Should she answer it? Should she just walk away? Should she turn around and scream? Kagome didn't want to take any chances with the message on the arm. Kagome walked towards the ringing phone and grabbed it, but the hand would not let the phone go.

Kagome pulled harder, but again, the hand will not let go of the grip on the phone. Soon, the girl started wrestling with the arm that would not let go of the ringing phone. Kagome gulped when she realized what she had to do. She placed the phone, with the cold, dead fingers touching her ear and she pressed the talk button.

"Hello?" Kagome's voice wavered slightly.

On the other line, Kagome could hear breathing and a slight ticking sound in the background.

"Hello?" Kagome greeted again. "Is anyone there?"

"Watch your back Kagome," a voice whispered on the other line. "Time's running out. Here is a little poem I made just for you...

Two people, an unusual couple

Dead love, a fighter's spirit

In the heart

Is where they lie

Time's a ticking Say bye bye..."

Kagome heard every word clearly and the person on the other line hung up. Kagome placed the phone and the arm back on the table, wondering what the poem meant. The shaking girl slowly backed away from the table and ran out of that small dead ended hallway. Kagome knew that the poem meant more than what it sounded.

"What do you want from me?" Kagome screamed in the quiet household. "Stop playing with me!"

**_I WANT YOUR LIFE. I WANT TO BATHE IN YOUR BLOOD._**

Kagome screamed and tripped on her own two feet, curling into a ball. She couldn't cry. All she could do was curl in a ball and forget everything around her.

_'Mom, where are you when I need you?'_ Kagome thought.

**GET UP**

Another voice, a different one from the other one, screamed in the house. Kagome ignored it and curled into an even tighter ball.

**I SAID GET UP GIRL! DO YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR FRIENDS AGAIN?**

Kagome looked at the ceiling and nodded numbly. "What does that poem mean?"

**YOU HAVE TO FIGURE THAT OUT YOURSELF GIRL!**

_'Two people, an unusual couple, Dead love, a fighter's spirit, In the heart, Is where they lie, Time's a ticking, Say bye bye,' _Kagome recited the poem in her head. _'What does that mean? I never was fond of poetry...'_

The girl sat up and stared at the ceiling. Kagome needs to toughen up. If she wanted to figure out who's killing all these people, she needs to gather her wits, use her brain and look for clues. No time to panic and go cry to mama. For some reason, the fates wanted Kagome to do this and she will accept her destiny and do this, even if it means she will die at the age of 18.

With that resolve, Kagome stood and turned around, heading towards the locked door. The door was locked for a reason. A reason that it kept a secret or many secrets, regarding Kagome's situation.

_'Okay, this killer, the masked man, kills people that betrayed their loved ones...? He always left a note in their hands and he has a fetish with eyes and maybe hearts even. He's been killing for quite a long time, the period where Shippo came from, the feudal era! He's dead then. He possesses people and makes them kill the one that has betrayed them. He always wore a mask. The voice. The one that didn't care about my well being didn't appear physically until Yazi came over to my house,'_ Kagome thought as she neared the locked door.

_'Then there was that lady Izayoi who comes out and takes control of Yazi's body. Why take Yazi's body? Wait, if Izayoi can take control of Yazi's body, doesn't that mean Izayoi is dead?'_ Kagome continued piecing everything. _'So if Izayoi's dead, why Yazi again...? Damn! Why didn't I see that?! Yazi's full name is Ioyazi, which is the backwards name of Izayoi! Ioyazi is the reincarnation of Izayoi and that's why Izayoi took control of Yazi's body.'_

Kagome snapped her fingers in realization. _''Kay! I got that part done. Now, why was the shop closed down for 3o years and Sesshomaru and Inuyasha treats is like it was opened. Unless...it can't be!'_

The locked door still remained lock, but Kagome noticed something hanging from the doorknob. A key.

_'Inuyasha and Sesshomaru are dead! Using my powers unconciously, I saw Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. Not to mention, with the power to touch an object and see the past, I saw the past of what the shop looked like 3o years ago, with the wanted sign as well, unconciously once again. I seriously need to learn how to control this power,'_ Kagome reminded herself and grabbed the hanging key. _'That's why Inuyasha's hand was in my chest! He's friggin dead!'_

She thrust the key in the lock and it clicked open. She smiled and crept downstairs. Flames were brought to life with every three steps Kagome took. She soon found herself in a room and her excited smile turned into a scream. There, hanging from the ceiling was a neatly slashed, dead body, with its eyes laid on a pillow.

Kagome's jaw dropped open. Who's body is this? The woman had long, silver hair, and wore a very intricate patterned kimono. Kagome knew she was a youkai by her pointed ears and fangs in her mouth. Not to mention the tips of her fingertips held sharp claws. Her golden eyeballs were laid out on a pillow. Is this Sesshomaru's and Inuyasha's mother?

Kagome looked back at the body. She decided to touch the body and see the past behind it. Kagome hesistantly leaned towards the body, her fingertips almost making contact with the dead body. Kagome clutched the woman's bloody kimono and she had to concentrate to bring herself into the past itself.

--

"Hello there lovely youkai," the masked man said quietly as he hung the dead woman's body from the ceiling and laid her eyes on the table on top of a pillow. "I shall hang you here to pride myself at such a wonderful catch ne?"

The masked man looked at the empty wheelbarrow and then at the shocked expression on Kagome's face.

"Did I not tell you not to look into the past that has nothing to do with you dear Kagome?" the masked man said and snapped his fingers.

Kagome screamed when she felt herself falling and she was surrounded by black and dead bodies. He did it again. He managed to intercept her so she cannot see the past. Kagome screamed when the masked man started to go through her memories once more, inflicting pain.

"Stop it!" Kagome cried out as she continued falling. "Let me go! Why do you keep killing all these people?"

_'Her name is Inutashia. She was Inutashiou's first mate. They both had a child, Sesshomaru. She died though, as you can see, and Inutashiou married a human woman, Yazi's incarnation, Izayoi. The result of their love was Inuyasha, the half breed, the monster, the **mistake**,'_ the masked man said and appeared right beside Kagome, who was covering her ears.

The two figures and more dead bodies continued falling in the never ending black.

_'Why are you covering your ears child? Is this why you came to visit the past? You want to know how that woman died? You want to prove your assumpitions right? You want to know if I killed her? I'll tell you. I did,' _the masked man said without opening his mouth. He was talking to Kagome through her mind.

Kagome looked at the masked man beside her, under the billowing mask, she saw a smirk and fangs poke out of his mouth. "You're a youkai..."

_'Yes I am dear Kagome. I killed her becasue I didn't want to share her with anyone else-'_

"How did this Inutashiou feel when he found his mate was dead? How did young Sesshomaru react when his mother died?"

_'Inutashiou was depressed and young Sesshomaru? He was too young to remember what his mother looked like.'_

"I will bring you to court!" Kagome cried out and glared at the masked man, but he grabbed her throat and they stopped falling.

The dead bodies turned into dust and the man pinned the girl against a wall that appeared out of nowhere. Kagome struggled againt his hold an glared at him with all she got. Somehow, she wasn't scared no more. She just wanted to bring this guy down and she will, even if it kills her.

_'I'm dead dear Kagome. You can't bring the dead to court...'_ the masked man smirked at the girl and licked her cheek.

Kagome screamed and tried to kick him, but her legs went through his body.

_'I'm very sorry we must part dear Kagome...farewell for now,'_ the masked man whispered and let go of the girl and started to fade, from his feet and upwards. _'But before I leave you, what do you think your spirtual and youkai slayer friends are doing right now? Time's a ticking...'_ the masked man said when only his head was left.

"What is your name?" Kagome said and clutched her abused neck.

_'In due time my dear, in due time,'_ and he was gone.

--

Kagome was pushed away from the body and landed on her butt. The pain in her head subsided when a thought struck her.

_'Where is Sango and Miroku anyways? What about Kouga? Time's a ticking? Where have I...the poem! What does the poem have to do with Sango and Miroku?'_ Kagome wondered to herself.

The said girl stood up and dusted her clothes. She then noticed there was a trap door under the table that held the woman's eyes. Kagome sighed and got on her knees. She crawled under the table, ignoring the eyes above her head and pulled on the handle of the trap door. It didn't budge. Kagome pulled harder and lifted a little, but did not open up. She then noticed that the trap door had a lock. _'Damn it again!'_

The distant ringing reached Kagome's ears once more. Kagome backed out from under the table and stood up. Might as well answer the phone again. Might be the masked man ready to tell her who he is. Kagome went up the steps, taking two at the time. Once outside the room, she grabbed the key from the lock and looked at the small note hanging from the key. _'Hey Kagome! Thanks 4 helping me!- Shippo._

Kagome smiled and said a silent prayer to Shippo and his parents'. Kagome jogged towards the ringing phone and picked it up, still grossed out by the hand that will not let go.

"Hello?"

"Kagome! Get out of that house!" a voice screamed from the other end.

"Sango?" Kagome said and fear started to creep within her. She was not scared for herself, or the warning, but the tone in her friend's voice told her something was happening to her.

"Run Kagome! Run and never come ba-oof!" Miroku's muffled voice screamed out until the line was cut off.

"Sango? Miroku? Answer me!" Kagome screamed. Panic and fear gripped the trembling girl once again and the poem entered her mind again.

_Two people, an unusual couple _

_Dead love, a fighter's spirit _

_In the heart _

_Is where they lie _

_Time's a ticking _

_Say bye bye_

_'Two people, an unusual couple means Miroku and Sango together,'_ Kagome thought and calmly placed the phone back on the table. _'Dead love, stands for Miroku because he can feel the dead and he loves Sango, I think. A fighter's spirit is Sango because she is a descendant of youkai slayers. In the heart, is where they lie means in the centre of the house. Times a ticking means...'_ Kagome's eyes widened. _'A bomb and say bye bye means it will kill them!'_

--

"That was very foolish," a cold, monotone voice said. "Utterly stupid."

"I don't care what you think ya jackass. I have not cared what other people think my whole entire existence in this world or the other world!" another voice shouted.

"To fall in love-"

"I did not fall in love with Kagome!" the youngest of the two golden eyed boys yelled.

"Who said it was Kagome Inuyasha?" the eldest rose an eyebrow. "I could've said "to fall in love with instant noodles"."

If he was alive, the hanyou spirit would've blushed. Since he is of the dead, his ghostly figure had a tinge of pink. "Shut up."

"GWAH!" another voice entered the room and the spirit fell on the ground. "What the frick?"

"Hey there flea bag..." Inuyasha greeted.

"Nice meeting you here you stupid mutt," Kouga replied and sat up, glaring at the hanyou ghost.

Inuyasha glared right back, while Sesshomaru scoffed and asked a question at wolf boy, "What are you doing here?"

"That damn man who is trying to kill my woman-" Kouga started, still glaring at the hanyou.

"Woman? Your woman? Is it Ayame possibly?" Inuyasha taunted, a smirk appearing on his cocky face. "I thought you got rid of her."

"It's not Ayame! Her name's Kagome-" Kouga growled when he was interupted again.

"Kagome, the one who is alive?" Sesshomaru said.

Kouga nodded and the two glaring ghosts growled.

"Your woman? Kagome ain't your woman!" Inuyasha shouted. "She never was and never will be! She's alive and you're dead! See the difference?!"

" So? Love has no boundaries you ass-wipe! She's my woman you stupid mutt! You're just jealous I have claimed her as mine before you did!" Kouga replied. "She was and forever will be mine!"

"She belongs to no one you stupid dogs!" a high pitched voice screamed out.

The three males all looked at the small ghost child that appeared out of nowhere. "She is who she is. She belongs to no one. If she finds out you two dogs are claiming her as yours, she will kick your butt."

"**_KAGOME!?_**" Inuyasha and Kouga screamed at the same time. "What the hell?"

"Yes, it is I, Kagome Higurashi's younger, dead self!" ghost child Kagome said.

"Kagome is alive. How is it that you are dead?" Sesshomaru asked.

"It's simple really. I died when Kagome entered puberty because she suffered a hard childhood. The older the person grows and they still have not accepted what happened in their childhood happened, the child in them dies and becomes its own spirit. The ghost child, like me, helps our older self come to terms about their childhood. Once they have accepted it, we become one with our older selves once more."

"Oh," Inuyasha said. "So, Kagome has not been able to come to terms with her childhood yet?"

"If she did, I would not be here stupid!" Kagome said and made an obnoxious face at the growling hanyou. "You're a hanyou! Can I touch your ears? They look so cute! Please! Please!"

"So, have you contacted Kagome yet?" Sesshomaru said, interupting the war of obnoxious faces between the ghost child, Kagome and his idiotic brother.

"Yes but I did not help her accept her childhhod. Instead, I helped her find out how our father died..." ghost child Kagome said and floated towards the hanyou and sat in his lap. "It'll be pretty easy 'cause she can see and communicate with the dead. Unlike others, their older self doesn't have that power, which makes it difficult."

Inuyasha twitched when the ghost child fell asleep in his lap. "Great. I have a kid sleeping in my lap. What if she pees on me?"

"The dead don't sleep and they don't have the ability to urinate. Even if they did, it would be my pleasure to urinate on you," ghost child Kagome said.

"Who uses the word 'urinate'?" Inuyasha asked. "And why pee on me?!"

"I dunno..." ghost child Kagome said and smiled at the twitchy hanyou. "You're really squishy for a ghost. Are you fat?"

Inuyasha's twitching became more constant. Kouga laughed and Sesshomaru let out a small smile.

"Hey! That's not nice!" another young high pitched voice yelled and a ghost child of Inuyasha appeared.

"AHHHH! HOW IS IT THAT YOU'RE **_THERE_** WHEN I'M **_HERE_**!?" Inuyasha screeched and pointed at his younger dead self. "AHHH! I'M DEAD TIMES TWO!"

"Same thing with Kagome, except the younger self, me," the ghost child pointed at himself. "Is connected to someone in the living world. I do not know who I'm connected to though. They have to call me!"

Sesshomaru's small smile widened a bit and Kouga laughed harder when the younger ghost child of Inuyasha jumped in the older hanyou's lap, with his companion. "Hi myself!"

"FRICK! I'M GONNA GO CRAZAAAAY!" Inuyasha screamed and pushed the two laughing ghost children off his lap.

"Oops, gotta go!" both ghost children replied and grabbed each other's hands before they disappeared.

"INUYASHA! YOU INGRATE, IDIOTIC, STUPID, BASTARD, HORSE'S ASS, BASTARD OF A STUPID HANYOU!" the masked man's voice bounced off the walls in the room.

Kouga's hairs on the back of his neck stood on end when he felt a spirit with so much hatred near him. His ice blue eyes caught the dramatic, smokey entrance of a man wearing a mask, his shoulder length hair swaying to the invisible wind.

"Kouga! Welcome to hell!" the masked man cried out.

--

BAMMEY! How'd you like this chapter? Newayz so off topic buuuut, Who does Ranma end up with at the end of the series? Akane? Shampoo? Ukyo? How does the series end anyways? What about Inuyasha? Who does he ends up with? Kagome or Kikyo? And how did the Inuyasha's series end?

ahahahah tell me in your reviews

review&review

-Stealthy Jessica


	7. HideNGoSeek Tag

**Notes**

--

Chap 7- Hide-N-Go-Seek Tag

--

He looked at his wife and slowly got up, leaving the warm, plush bed behind him. He grabbed a jacket and placed his feet in his shoes. He opened the door and the harsh, cold wind slapped against his warm body. He left his house and closed the door behind him, walking to his neighbour's house, the old looking house that many rumors and myths circled around.

He didn't know why he was here, but all he knew was the aura surrounding this house called him and he obeyed. Befriending, loving and marrying a miko does have its perks. He could read aura's, courtesy of his miko wife. He felt the aura when they both moved here, but something called him to stay. So he obeyed the call and now here he stood, in front of the house, knocking on the door, not knowing his wife was awake.

No one answered so the man grabbed the doorknob and entered the house. It was dark, no light but the moon's entered the household. He felt a twisted feeling of calmness and relaxation in this house. He wandered in the hallways, and in his mind, he saw many people he never met, die a horrible death. He smiled, liking the blood.

You see, he always had an infatuation with blood. No one close to him knows this of course. Ever since he turned five, he was always fascinated with blood. It gives him a certain thrill and his heart beats faster. He went to doctors, shrinks and stuff, but they could not decipher what was wrong with him. Hell, not even his wife knew of his bloodlust. He never killed a human being, but he did kill plenty of innocent animals. The images playing in his mind suddenly turned on his bloodlust on max, the want to kill human beings pulsed in his veins.

_'Son, allow me to use your body to fuel your bloodlust to get what I want. In return, you will get what you want: the blood on your hands,'_ a voice echoed in the man's mind.

_'Yes! I want blood, I agree. Use my body to get what you want, as long as I have other's blood on my hands, but do not let my wife know of this...'_ the man agreed.

Not knowing he was giving his soul and body to the masked man.

--

"Finally, I can walk among the living and kill without a host!" the masked man said happily. "Once he and I become one forever, no one can stop me from fulfilling my want. He will live as a mere voice in my head as I gain full control of his body. Hmm, maybe I can have his wife become one of my servants. No, she is a miko and she will do something about it. I must kill her when I get the chance, but right now, let's see how smart poor Kagome is..."

--

Kagome felt it. She could feel another presence with her, in this house. Kagome placed the phone back on the holder and crept towards the exit, but froze when she saw another figure in the house.

_'How did he get in? Who is he? Why is he here? Oh no! What if that's the masked man's reincarnation waiting to kill Yazi?'_ Kagome thought, not knowing Yazi's dead body was still unfound in the station.

"Kagome..." a voice whispered.

Kagome slowly turned around, trying to locate the voice. She could hear the unknown man come closer to the room she was in.

"They will die...and it is all your fault...you brought them in this game of ours..."

"Game? What game are you talking about? Killing random people and dumping their bodies in my house is not a game!" Kagome whispered back.

"I found you..." the voice whispered at the same time Kagome felt a hand on her shoulder.

Kagome immedietely turned around, but a fist contacted her face. Kagome stumbled backwards from the force, feeling a thin trail of blood trickle down her nose. She looked up and was met with red eyes. Kagome screamed when the man took out a knife and pointed it towards the frightened girl.

"This man wants blood Kagome. Any blood he does not care, but I want your blood..." the voice whispered; but not from the man, somewhere in the room.

"Leave me alone!" Kagome cried and started to run, but the man grabbed the back of her shirt and hauled her to his side. "Let me go!"

The man just grinned and didn't feel her small fists hit him rapidly. He was excited. He could finally have a human's blood to bathe in instead of a worthless animal. The man raised the knife to the girl's neck and applied a slight pressure, allowing a trail of blood to flow. He laughed darkly. Yes, he will be be filled with this girl's life. Then he will go home and wash all the blood off of his body and live his secret bloodlust life with his wife and come back here.

"Too bad you won't be here to see your friends' guts burst from their chests. You won't see me eat their hearts either..." the voice said.

"They did nothing! Why do you want to kill them?" Kagome mumured softly, feeling the prick of tears, yet the girl held them back.

"Anyone who steps in my house dies...anyone can come in, but once the night settles in, no one can go out. I was very surprised you and your officer friend managed to escape at night. You were lucky then and I was becoming sloppy in my work. Modern technology is really something ne? But no matter, you can check in, but you cannot check out...besides, I like to cause you suffering. It is fun to see you attempt to save people's lives, when you it's you who puts them in this kind of danger..."

"You monster!" Kagome screeched and elbowed the man behind her.

The man wheezed and dropped his knife in the process. Kagome grabbed the weapon and took off, not looking back. The unknown voice started to laugh, his dark laugh echoing in the house. Kagome heard the man get up and started to chase her down and that made her run around the house faster.

"No one can hear you my dear..."

--

As Kagome ran, she heard the opening of a door. She turned and saw a woman enter the house, with a glowing pink light surrounding her form.

"Run! Get out of here!" Kagome panted when she reached the woman. "What are you doing here?"

The glowing pink woman didn't answer, but looked at the girl quizzically. "Umm..."

The footsteps were louder and Kagome grabbed the woman's wrist, dragging her to an unknown hallway in the house. As the two women continued running, the laugh did not cease, scaring both woman dearly.

"What's going on? Who are you?" the woman asked.

"I'm Kagome Higurashi and this is my house. What are you doing here?" Kagome panted out, her left hand clutching the knife tightly.

"I saw my husband come in here-"

"That's your husband?" Kagome saw the woman nodd. "He's trying to kill me!"

"What? He wouldn't do such a thing!" the woman defended.

Kagome used the point of the knife to point at the deep cut on her throat. "Your husband did this okay!"

"Kikyo, how nice of you to join Kagome and I..." the killer husband said slowly as he stood in front of the two woman, blocking their path.

"Naraku! What are you doing harming an innocent girl?" Kikyo asked and started to walk towards her husband, but Kagome stopped her.

Naraku laughed. "Kikyo dear, did you know I always had a fetish with blood? I was always fascinated with the red liquid. That is why I became a doctor. I killed more people than saved their lives. Someone is giving a chance to fulfuill my wants and needs. I want to bathe in blood Kikyo dearest, and this man is giving me the chance. He and I are going to become one..."

"Who?" Kikyo asked as her pale hands glowed a blue, instead of pink.

"Me..." the masked man appeared behind Naraku. "Welcome to our humble party miko..."

Kikyo looked into the eyes of her once loving husband, not seeing the masked man, but feeling his evil presence. "No! You will not take him away from me!"

"Too bad dear miko, he is already too deep in his bloodlust. He will kill you," the masked man said and stood in front of Naraku, looking at both women. "Let us play a game. Hide-N-Go-Seek tag shall we? Naraku will be it and you two beautiful women are the ones who are trying not to be it-"

"What happens if he gets us?" Kagome's meek voice came from behind the stoic, strong miko.

"If he 'tags' you, you are dead. As I was saying, the 'home free' is the place where the two doctors are. For a little while anyways. Let's start..." the masked man said before he disappeared.

Naraku smiled and brandished another knife in his left hand. "One...two...three..."

Kagome turned and ran, Kikyo following, trying to contain the tears that wanted to spill down her cheeks.

_'I was right. Something evil lurked in this house and my husband that I knew and loved is no more. This is a monster. I need to stay alive with this girl, Kagome...'_ Kikyo thought and followed the panicking girl.

"Kagome, we need to calm down and-AHHH!" Kikyo screamed when she felt someone grab her long hair from behind. She craned her neck and saw that Naraku held her hair in his grip. She winced and clutched the roots of her hair. "Naraku let me go!"

"But love, I thought you want us to last forever..." Naraku said and tugged harder.

"Let her go!" Kagome screamed and reached over to cut the miko's long hair, but Naraku kicked Kagome in the stomach and she dropped the knife. Kagome crumpled to the floor, clutching her stomach, while glaring at Naraku.

Kikyo closed her eyes and placed her hands on her ex-husband's hand. She started to glow blue and the smell of burning flesh reached Kagome's nose.

"AHHH! You wretch!" Naraku screamed out and released Kikyo, cradling his burnt hands.

Kikyo and Kagome didn't waste time as they ran away, not looking back at the screaming man. Step after step, breath after panicked breath, hallway after hallway and dodge after dodge, the women stopped and hid inside the bathroom. Kikyo sat on the toilet, cradling her head with her hands as sweat dripped down her body.

"You're a miko," Kagome stated, looking in the mirror. She was going to turn the tap on, but was afraid what happened in the abandoned hospital might happen again.

"Yes."

"I can see the dead and communicate with the dead."

Kikyo didn't respond but looked up at the panting girl._ 'Can she summon the dead?'_

"Kagome, are there other people in here beside us and my...husband?" Kikyo whispered.

"Yes. Two doctors who are trapped in this tangled web of blood and death..." Kagome replied. "Two people, an unusual couple, Dead love, a fighter's spirit, In the heart, Is where they lie, Time's a ticking, Say bye bye. What do you think that poem means?"

Kikyo thought about it while Kagome sat on the edge of the tub, tapping her foot absentmindedly.

Kikyo spoke, "I think it means two people, one man and one woman. It means, they're somewhere in the house, the heart-main room- of the house and they are running out of time before they die."

"That's what I thought-" Kagome stopped in mid-sentence at the hollow sound her foot tapping made on the ground.

Kikyo watched the girl curiously. Kagome tapped her foot again, hearing the hollow sound. _'Something's beneath us...a cave?'_

Kagome knelt on the ground and removed the dirty rug from the ground. A trap door.

"This house seems small on the outside, but it's huge on the inside!" Kikyo whispered.

_'Should we go in th-'_ Kagome's thoughts stopped when both women heard the heavy footsteps of Naraku.

"Open it!" Kikyo whispered.

Kagome's shakey hands grasped the handle and she pulled. She immedietely jumped inside, Kikyo not far behind as she closed the door quietly as possible. The two look-alikes started crawling in the small space, Kagome in the front and Kikyo in the back. The only sound the two hiders heard were the sound of their thumping hearts, their pants and the squeaks of rats somewhere.

"Can't you use your miko powers or something to purify this house?" Kagome panted. "And end this nightmare?"

"I wish, but the evil surrounding this house is too strong for me alone to purify this," Kikyo replied. "All we have to focus is trying to stay alive in this twisted game."

"What about your husband?"

"That man is not my husband. I never knew he always had a strong lust for blood. Now, the spirit is becoming one with him. The spirit will then have his own body while my hus- the man who is trying to kill us, becomes a little voice in his head. You never give your body to a spirit that you do not know because they could have experienced a horrible, murderous past and kill everyone. This spirit, I bet he lived in this house and has full control over it."

_'So that means Naraku is not the masked man's reincarnation,'_ Kagome thought.

"I found you..." a voice whispered behind the two crawling women.

--

One.Two.Three...the masked man grinned excitedly. He's never had this much fun with a certain human before. He always kills them or orders one of his servants to kill anyone who entered his house.

_'Maybe I should keep dear Kagome alive for awhile. She is a very entertaining subject to play with...'_ the masked man thought.

The masked man sauntered in the room where the dead youkai still hung limply. "I will play with the humans for awhile, then it's game over..."

"Master," a ghostly figure bowed before the masked man. "What do you plan on doing?"

"I will become one with that man who has a lust for blood. Then I can go around killing all those traitors, but since I am inhabiting a living body, but I am still that of the dead, no one will know who killed all those people. No more possessing for me," the masked man grinned and clapped. "Becuase if you meet a living person and they have a strong sense of spirituality or bloodlust, you can take over their bodies until they die from natural causes...

"What do you want me to do master?" the voice asked.

"Hmmm, go do something. Do not partake in my little game Inuyasha," the masked man hissed.

Inuyasha nodded and disappeared, leaving the masked man and the dead dog youkai alone. "Is Kagome smart enough to figure out where her two doctor friends? Is she smart enough to leave this house alive?"

The masked man disappeared and appeared in the kitchen. He placed a picture of three bloodied bodies on the counter and disappeared.

--

"Kikyo!" Kagome screamed out when Naraku grabbed Kikyo's ankle.

The miko ignored the teen's cries and concentrated on blasting Naraku away from them.

"Oh no you don't!" Naraku took out a dagger and slashed Kikyo's chest, grinning at the blood that spurted out. "You're all mine!""

Kikyo ignored the wound and punched the man with her glowing fist. His grip loosened, but not enough for her to escape. Kagome rushed forwards and somehow tackled him in the small crawl space. Kikyo watched with horror as her ex-husband and the girl fought.

"Find the two doctors Kikyo! Please! Then get out!" Kagome gasped in pain as Naraku plunged the dagger deep in her shoulder. "Go! I'll take care of him! GO!"

Kikyo stared at the bleeding girl before crawling away with one hand as the other clutched her chest. The miko used her powers to heal herself, but the slash was too deep. She continued crawling through the space, praying that Kagome will make it out alive. As Kikyo continued to crawl, leaving a trail of her blood, she tried to figure out where the two doctors were and the poem came in mind.

_Two people, an unusual couple_

_Dead love, a fighter's spirit _

_In the heart _

_Is where they lie _

_Time's a ticking _

_Say bye bye_

Kikyo collapsed, but she heard the sound of distant water and saw a door a feet away from her. She started dragging her body towards the door up ahead, wincing as rocks and dirt mingled with her wound, but ignored the pain. Once she reached the door, she grabbed the handle and let herself in. She closed her eyes,  
trying to find two other auras in the room she was in. She opened her eyes and looked at the only object in the circular room. A well.

_'I felt two other auras touch mine, but they're pretty far,'_ Kikyo thought and edged herself near the well. She peered down and was met with her reflection. _'Why would there be a well filled with water in a house?'_

The woman snapped her fingers and a ball of light appeared beside her hand. She placed her hand in the water and saw another door in the well. _'The auras! The water is blocking it! That's why it felt like they were far away!'_

Kikyo dumped her head in the water, pushing her hand and the ball of light farther down the well. The door needs a key. Kikyo inwardly cursed and pushed her head back to the surface, but a force placed her head back in the water.

Kikyo used her other arm to blast the thing that was drowning her, but she missed. Kikyo saw her vision darken as the small ball of light started to fade. Her long hair was in someone's hand and that hand pulled her head towards the surface, not to mention she felt a hand on her chest. Kikyo breathed in the much needed air as her blue face returned to its natural pale complexion. She looked in the room and the ground started to shake.

A hole appeared under the unconcious form of a green thing. Chains appeared from the hole and grabbed the green thing and disappeared. Kikyo scanned the room, but she was the only one in there, but she could feel someone with her. "You're dead and you saved me. Thank you..."

Inuyasha nodded at the miko and spoke, "You're welcome. Good thing I saved you before Jaken drowned you. He hates humans... goodbye and please protect Kagome..."

Kikyo nodded at the unseen ghost and felt his presence leave her. Kikyo stood up and realized her wounds were healed. She walked towards the other door in the room (that she didn't come out of) and grabbed the doorknob. She pushed, but it did not budge. She sighed and burned the lock. She pushed herself through and was met with a dead, well-preserved dog youkai, hanging from the ceiling.

"In the heart is where they lie..." Kikyo whispered and she suddenly got an idea. "The key is inside the heart of that woman..."

--

Dunna! The key is in Inutashiou's dead first mate! Does that mean Kikyo will have to plunge her hand in the woman's heart? How did the key get into the heart? Will the masked man stop her before she does that? Will Kikyo survive? What happened to Kagome? Is she alive or is she dead now? What about Miroku and Sango? So many questions! Guess you gotta tune in next time!

**review&review**

-Stealthy Jessica


	8. Lullabies

**Notes**

Sorry it took me awhile to update, I was somewhat stuck on what this chapter should be about...it's somewhat like a filler so yeah...so here it is!

ps. I added something in chap 7, near the well part, not very big...a very small, minor detail...

Chapter 8 for NOTES!

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and company don't belong to me, rather Rumiko Takahashi does. I just own the plotline :3

--

Chap 8- Lullabies

--

Her red eyes watched how the people she cared and loved, were killed by her own hands. Inside, she was crying. Crying for her family. Crying for herself. Crying for the spirits who cannot move on. Crying for the only one who can save all these souls.

She watched as the red liquid flowed ever so slowly out of the dead human shells of what was once a happy family.

--

His eyes connected with her own eyes, filled with a calming love.

--

His eyes widened as a headless girl appeared in front of him. The little girl held her head in one arm, while carrying a broken toy in her other arm. She was covered in blood and slowly, walked towards him, the chains on her ankles clinking loudly in his ears.

His eyes followed the girl's movement and he didn't leave his spot. Soon, a scream broke out in the silent hallway, making him cringe at the sound. The girl dropped her head and it rolled towards his floating figure. The girl reached out a hand towards him, as more wounds appeared on the child's body.

The scream rose in volume and he felt the ground and walls shudder from the sound. The girl dropped her toy and reached both hands towards his unmoving figure. He felt his half brother and the wolf appear behind him, watching the girl as well. The screaming grew louder and the head started spinning. The toy burst into flames, engulfing it.

The masked man slowly appeared, limb by limb behind the headless girl. His mask fluttered to the invisible wind, showing his nose and mouth. He smirked and placed a clawed hand on the girl's shoulder. The scream intensified, until the chains gave the girl a tug and she disappeared through the floor. The screaming stopped and the head and the toy followed the girl.

Inuyasha could feel anger and disgust flow through his ghostly figure. He knew red started to bleed through his usually white, translucent figure. "Why is she here? She's nothing but a child! And you killed her!"

"I did not kill her. She killed herself," the masked man explained before he disappeared, a smirk on his ghostly face. "Her name is Rin..."

Sesshomaru looked at the spot where the dead child, Rin, disappeared off to. He turned and vanished. Kouga shrugged and followed after the eldest youkai, leaving the still angered hanyou by himself.

--

She silently cried, welcoming the warm flow of tears down her pale cheeks. She closed her eyes, burying herself in self-pity, loathing and depression. Now she waits. Waits for death to finish her off. Yet, she was not alone and love filled her dark soul.

--

His blank eyes stared at her, unseeing, empty, cold, dead. His face devoid of life, but that of a small smile on his face. Not a smirk. Not a disgusting grin. A smile. A pure, happy, albeit sad smile.

His last dying words, "I'm sorry...love you...Kikyo..."

Kagome's eyes shone with pity and sorrow for the poor man. She wasn't angry at him or did she hate him. She bent her head and prayed for him to live a happier life in the other worlds. Tears of sadness coursed down her cheek and she turned and left, following Kikyo's trail of blood. She witnessed how Narakumwas poised to kill her, but instead of the blade going through her flesh, he pointed it through his heart.

Naraku's bloodlust dimmed enough for Kagome to get through to him.

"Do you want to do this? Do you want a murderer controlling your own body? You'll be a criminal Naraku! What about Kikyo? You didn't want to tell her about your bloodlust because you knew deep down, that it would hurt her and drive her away. You love her Naraku. This is not the Naraku Kikyo knows and love, this is the bloodlust speaking," Kagome whispered, begging for the man to understand and stop this. The fates were on her side.

Then Naraku killed himself and apologized for everything he has done and was about to do.

--

She struggled against the binds, her voice wavering as she spoke, "We'll always be together..."

"Forever," he replied back.

--

Her eyes widened at the scene before her.

Blood.

So much blood.

Everywhere.

Kikyo's limp body was pinned against the wall across from her with an arrow. Her life source continued to seep out of her dead body, creating a dark puddle underneath her. Kagome inched closer to the dead miko and grabbed her cold hand. "Kikyo, please...don't die...not you too..."

"Pure is impure, impure is pure. Good is evil, evil is good," someone sang quietly in the room.

Kagome's body tensed and she slowly turned her head. No one. "Who's there?"

Silence.

Kagome turned her attention back to the dead miko, crying and weeping. Kagome followed Kikyo's trail of blood and ended up in the room with the well and continued. She saw a burnt lock on the ground and she went through the door. She ended up in the room where the dead youkai female hung. That was where the locked trapdoor underneath the table went to. "You tried your best. Thank you Kikyo...for everything..."

A hand slowly reached for Kagome, and the said girl remained oblivious.

"Thank you Kikyo, thank you," Kagome chanted, rubbing her face against the cold hand, trying to bring back warmth she knew that would never grace the brave miko.

Kagome screamed when someone tugged her ear. She heard laughter. A high, humourless, haunting laughter.

"Ring a round a rosy," the unknown voice whispered.

Scratches were heard. Kagome looked to the wall behind the dead youkai and a scratchy circle started appearing.

"A pocket full of posies..."

Kagome looked down and saw the said flowers in Kikyo's pockets.

"Hush ah...hush ah..."

The silence hurt Kagome's ears and more tears spilled. "Please, what do you want?"

"And we all fall down," the voice whispered darkly.

Kagome turned her body around just in time to see a headless girl in front of her. A glinting knife in one hand and her head in the other, while her toy was near her feet. "And we all fall down..."

The headless girl plunged the knife towards Kagome's heart, but a strong wind and a loud howling stopped the dead girl. Kagome quickly stood up and ran towards the door. The lock twisted itself and trapped the frightened young woman in the room, with the slowly creeping dead girl in between her and the other door. The nearer the headless girl came, the wind strengthened.

"STOP!" the headless girl demanded. The wind stopped and the howling ceased.

Kagome stared at the blank eyes of the child, cringing as a black and blistered tongue lolled out of the dried up mouth.

_Squeak._

Both occupants ignored the sound.

Kagome started hitting the door, screaming for help, pleading for her life.

"HELP ME!"

_Squeak._

"PLEASE!"

A groan.

The little girl raised the knife higher.

_Twang_

An arrow sped through the dead child, it's bloody and sharp tip protruding from where the girl's heart was supposed to be, if she was alive. Kagome craned her neck, while the child lifted her head and turned blank eyes at the woman behind her. Kikyo, in all her miko glory. Her nightclothes were gone. All the blood were absent. Kikyo was garbed in a miko attire.

Red baggy pants and a white billowing shirt, accompanied with white socks and feudal era sandals. A longbow in her left hand as her right hand was still in mid-air as she released her arrow. The child burst into flames as chains reappeared around her ankles. With another scream from the head, the girl and her toy were pulled and was gone.

The knife clattered to the ground, the only solid thing that the dead child was there in the first place. Kagome lifted her teary and swollen eyes to the miko and smiled. "Thank you...for everything...Kikyo..."

Kikyo smiled and her tense body relaxed. "In the heart, Is where they lie..."

Kikyo's gaze settled on the dead youkai then looked back at Kagome. "Thank you for setting my husband free Kagome...farewell..."

The miko left. The only thing of her being there, was the bloody arrow pinned to the wall.

Kagome looked at the dead youkai. _'In the heart, Is where they lie...the key! Is in the heart of the youkai!'_

--

He closed his eyes, feeling his heartbeat slow and his breaths become uneven, yet he continued to hold her hand.

--

She started to dance in the forest, her glowing body illuminating the dark and haunting place. That was, until someone or something ruined her solitude of being alone.

Slowly, the ground started opening and a howling wind circled the area. She stared at the hole and slowly backed away, but chains sprouted from the hole and wound itself around her ankles and wrists. She tried, she really did. Yet all her feeble attmepts to escape was useless. She opened her mouth just as the chains yanked her in the hole.

Her scream was that of a whisper, as the winds mocked her.

"Hush ah...hush ah...and we all fall down..."

--

In another room in the house, the headless girl was playing with her toy. Her head was situated in the middle of the room. She cradled her toy, a doll, in her arms and started humming. The headless girl, Rin, was rocking her doll back and forth, while she spun in circles, her chains clinking loudly as she danced. A hole appeared right beside the head, and a woman rose.

Her violet eyes filled with fright stared at horror at the headless girl.

"Welcome Lady Izayoi," Rin whispered, not stopping her dance. "I am Rin..."

Izayoi squeaked when she noticed how close the head was to her feet. She floated farther from the head and closer to a corner. "What do you want from me?"

"Sing with me?" Rin's voice was dull, no emotion. "We are expecting another guest. I hope this time we will not be interrupted again..."

"Who is joining us?" Izayoi asked, regretting her question when she saw the deadly spark in the girl's usually dead eyes.

"Kagome Higurashi...you are here because you are a mother and she needs a mother's touch...and you will sing to Kagome...I will guide you..."

--

The key. The glinting and old-looking key laid in Kagome's trembling hands. _'I can save them! Sango and Miroku will be saved! Now, where are they hiding? Has to be in a place where the sound of the bomb will be somewhat muffled and wouldn't do much harm to the house...'_

What the young woman didn't know, was that time's up...

--

They locked lips for one last time. Sango wasn't afraid of dieing no more, as long as Miroku is with her, she can die in peace. She nor Miroku held no hate or anger for the girl who they befriended quickly. The sound of the ticking sped up as more water soaked through the badly made coffin type thing they were inside.

Miroku was calm and filled with love. What no one knew, Sango and he were a couple. Just before he was about to propose to her, they met Kagome and soon was placed here. No, he held no dark feelings for the young woman, but he wishes her luck for her mission. They parted, the need for air burning in their lungs.

Miroku mouthed an, _'I love you.'_

Sango responded back, _'I love you too.'_

They again locked lips and then a bright light and pain filled their senses.

--

The house shook and Kagome panicked. She heard something and followed the sound, and ended up in the room with the well. The water inside was spraying everywhere, soaking the bleeding girl as dread and more tears surfaced.

"No...just when...no..." Kagome whispered, falling down to her knees. The water and her tears mingled, as she cried once more.

The more people she gets close to, they all die. Every single one of them...

"I bet Yazi's dead too. She hasn't contacted me or anything...she's dead I bet..." Kagome choked out, throwing the key away from her.

The crying and distraught girl curled up into a ball, wishing for her family. Her mother's soothing hugs, her brother's perky voice and her grandfather's dull stories. She started to sing a lullaby her mother sang to Souta and her when they were scared, or refused to sleep when they were young children.

"Golden slumber kiss your eyes, Smiles await you when you rise. Sleep, pretty baby, Do not cry, And I will sing you a lullaby. Care is heavy, therefore-"

"Sleep, While I o'er you watch do keep. Sleep, pretty darling, Do not cry, And I will sing you a lullaby," another voice interuppted Kagome.

_'No...'_ Kagome raised her head and saw the headless child. "Go away!"

The headless child placed her toy and her head by her feet and reached out a hand towards the older girl. "Do not cry, and I will sing you a lullaby..."

"Leave me alone!" Kagome screamed out as chains appeared from the child's wrist and connected the frantic girl to the dead child.

"Sleep pretty darling..." Rin whispered and yanked the older girl towards her body.

"Inuyasha! **_Inuyasha_**!" Kagome screamed the first name that popped into her brain. "Let me go!"

"Black abyss kiss your eyes..." Rin said and Kagome noticed the child changed the words. "Death awaits you when you rise..."

--

_'They left me all alone...assholes...'_ Inuyasha's dog ears twitched when he heard someone scream his name. _'Huh? Was that Kagome?'_

"Inuyasha!"

"Kagome!" the dead hanyou screamed and tried to locate the sound, but he heard someone whisper a dark song overlapping Kagome's cries for help.

"Black abyss kiss your eyes...death awaits you when you rise..."

"Leave her alone!" Inuyasha screamed out, praying that he will be able to save the girl before death finally claims her. "KAGOME!"

--

She clasped her hands over her ears, trying to block out the laughter of the dead child. She ended up in a different room, with the headless girl known as Rin and Yazi's incarnation, Izayoi. Izayoi confirmed that Yazi is dead and her soul has joined Izayoi's soul.

"The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout..." Rin circled the older girl. "Down came the rain and washed the spider out..."

Kagome felt the small fingers of Rin glide down her back, making her hairs on her back stand on end.

"Rin, leave her alone-" Izayoi started.

"No," Rin said, stopping her ministrations on scaring the older girl. "Now it is time Lady Izayoi...say it after me..."

Izayoi gasped when more chains clasped around her legs and arms, pulling her towards the trembling girl in the middle of the room.

"Hug Kagome!" Rin said and Izayoi's arms moved on its own accord, embracing the girl to her chest.

Kagome struggled, but she knew she could not hit a spirit. "Rin, please let us go..."

"No," Rin whispered and picked up her doll. "Let's begin!"

Izayoi bent her mouth close to Kagome's ear and whispered, "I'm sorry for everything that has happened to you dear. Please forgive me for what I am about to do..."

"It's not your fault and I don't blame you," Kagome whispered back, trying her hardest to stop the flow of tears._ 'Inuyasha...where are you this time?'_

"Rock-a-bye baby in the treetop, when the wind blows, the cradle will rock, when the bough breaks the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all..." Rin whispered, rocking her doll back and forth.

Izayoi did the same thing, moving her body and Kagome's side to side, repeating the words. Kagome could not move, nor could she open her mouth to scream in pain as wounds started to appear on her already bruised and bloody body.

Rin then somewhat changed the words for the lullaby. "Baby is drowning, pale and fair. Mother sits near, in her rocking chair. Forward and back, the cradle she swings. And though baby sleeps, he hears what she screams..."

Izayoi's mouth moved, saying word for word the lullaby Rin whispers. The dead woman gasped when she realized the wounds on Rin are appearing on Kagome.

Rin continued and started to dance, still cradling her doll to her chest. "From the high rooftops, down to the sea. No one's as dear, as baby to me. Wee little fingers, eyes wide with with fright. Forever asleep, never to take flight..."

Rin ceased her dancing and kneeled beside Kagome, touching the deep, bloody gash around Kagome's neck.

"Why?" Kagome croaked out and blood spurted.

"You remind me of the child I was before this happened," the hand motioned over her body. "I want to see you dead...I refuse to see someone who has something I always wanted...for that you will die. You are receiving all the wounds on my body..."

The head rolled towards the females and stopped at the feet of Rin. Her blank eyes locked with Izayoi's eyes. "You remind me of my mother..."

--

That is not supposed to be a cliffy...does anybody know who the person is at the very beginning of the chapter?

Sorry Rin is...SOOOOOOOOOO Out of character, but she needs to be like that in the story...and you shall all get your reason(s) in due time dear friends...

So...how was that? I couldn't remember the lullabies so clearly so I used this site...-- h t t p : / / p a r e n t i n g . i v i l l a g e . c o m / n e w b o r n / n c r y i n g / 0 , , b 6 v v , 0 0 . h t m l

Lullabies used: -Ring around a rosy: that's a death song (from what my gr.4 teacher told me...) :3 so I **JUST HAD** to use it here...

-Golden Slumbers

- itsy bitsy spider

- Rock-a-bye baby

**-Review&reveiw**

-stealthy Jessica **OUT...:-D**


	9. Mirror, Mirror

**Notes**

--

Mirror, Mirror

--

"Come," the masked man said as he twirled a blood-tipped feather in his right hand.

A figure soon appeared, her dark and curly hair framing her face. She got on her knees and bowed low to her master.

The masked man grinned at his creation. This faceless dead woman was his latest servant and he congratulated himself on his good work. "I need you to keep an eye on my supposedly faithful servant, Inuyasha. Looks like he has feelings for sweet, innocent Kagome."

The faceless woman nodded obediently and slowly got up, leaving the masked man to his homicidal thoughts.

--

Inuyasha passed though many rooms, trying to find Kagome, but no such luck.

"KAGOME"

"Once upon a time..."

Inuyasha stopped and turned around, and saw a young boy, slightly older than Rin appear behind him.

"There was a hanyou..."

Inuyasha growled at him and was about to leave, when a black thread tied itself around his neck, pulling him backwards on his butt. "Damn kid! Let me go!"

The boy didn't answer and continued with his story. "Who fell in love with a girl..."

Inuyasha tried to claw the thread off of his throat, ignoring the story that was giving him a weird feeling. "You damn brat! Let me go!"

"But then, his master found out the forbidden feelings his servant held for the enemy..." the boy whispered and slowly walked over to the struggling hanyou.

Inuyasha glowered darkly at the boy and snarled at him, but he remained unfazed._ 'Damn kid won't shut up! Frick, I need to get to Kagome!'_

The young boy cupped the hanyou's cheek and whispered, "Death is waiting for her Inuyasha. It won't be long before her pure soul is corrupted. Then it's bye bye Kagome..."

The boy grinned wickedly, showing off pearly white fangs. "Who's to be trusted now?"

The thread came loose and disappeared as the young boy walked off, leaving a trail of black blood behind. Inuyasha wasted no moment and continued his search for Kagome.

--

Kagome clenched her eyes shut and willed for someone to save her from this pain. Izayoi's ghostly figure trembled against her own live one as they watched Rin dance around them with her doll as her dance partner. Her head focused on the two trembling women as they waited for something to happen.

_'Inuyasha, Kouga, anyone, please, help me and Izayoi!'_ Kagome begged silently.

Rin stopped dancing as a note suddenly fluttered in front of her. She bent down and grabbed the note and walked over to her head. She placed the note in front of her head and she read it as a frown appeared on her face. "Izayoi, you are dismissed."

Izayoi gasped when more chains popped out of the ground and pulled her down, leaving Kagome alone with the crazy child. Kagome whimpered when she knew there was no one else in the room with her. She once again, felt helpless and weak.

Rin swished her arm above her head and a long plane mirror appeared before her headless form. "I must go, your...hanyou friend will be arriving shortly and I do not want to be on the recieving end of his claws or his lashings...farewell for now...Kagome."

Kagome watched Rin pass through the mirror, leaving behind soft ripples. Kagome could hear the panicking voice of Inuyasha come closer to the room she was in, but before Rin and the mirror disappeared, the headless girl whispered, "I will be watching you Kagome..."

Then Inuyasha passed through the wall and stopped in front of the fallen form of the glowing human girl. Inuyasha gasped as the wounds Kagome recieved were all healing, leaving behind no scar. Inuyasha helped the girl stand up, noticing the solemn look in her different coloured eyes. Inuyasha sighed, knowing sooner or later, the events Kagome has been through will take an effect on her pure, innocent life.

"Kagome? Are you alright?" Inuyasha asked slowly, fearing the girl's reaction.

Kagome lifted her head and gazed at the hanyou with her eyes and said, "I...don't know anymore. I don't know if I can free all the souls. Inuyasha, I don't know anything anymore..."

Inuyasha frowned and hugged the crying girl to his chest, trying to comfort her distraught soul. _'I promise you Kagome, I will help you get through this. Just don't give up yet...'_

What the couple didn't notice was that the mirror briefly appeared in the room once more, showing Rin, with a sad smile on her face, no wounds present and her head properly on her neck, before it vanished.

--

**2 days later...**

After the 'Rin incident', Kagome slowly lost her spunk and she was more quiet and reserved. Everything that has happened to her since she moved here had finally affected her and scarred her soul. She lost the fire in her eyes, being replaced by a solemn sadness and anguish. Kagome was failing in all of her classes, she misses her family and the deaths around her was frightening her.

This wasn't a game anymore. It never was in the first place, but she acted like it was. Just play detective and run away from the enemy who wants you dead.  
Many souls are suffering because of the masked man, including hers. The raven-haired girl hopes that she will not become one of the many victims of the masked man.

She attended Ioyazi's funeral and created one for Kikyou, Naraku, Sango and Miroku in the backyard. Two days ago, Inuyasha never was too far from her, except when she went to school because he could not leave the property of the house for the masked man willed it so.

_'What has happened to me?'_ Kagome asked herself silently, looking at her reflection in the ancient mirror in the bathroom. The raven-haired beauty noticed the dark bags under eyes, her pale skin, her usually bright eyes were now dull and she was really skinny. _'The masked man that's what...'_

Kagome turned the tap, hearing the rush of water and it somewhat soothed her. Inuyasha was outside the door, waiting for her to finish doing her feminine things. Kagome cupped her hands under the flowing water and bowed her head, feeling the pinpricks of tears slowly flow down once more. _'Why me? Why am I put through this torture? What is my connection with this house that I'm the only one who has stepped foot in it and lived?!'_

Kagome's eyes widened and her hunched form starightened, until she was staring in her reflection once more. _'I'm the only one that stepped foot in this house and lived...what about mom, Souta and grandpa? They mysteriously went to Hawaii without telling me in person. Somehow, they won three tickets when we just moved here. Mom is always very punctual and grammar-free when she writes things. Not to mention, she never did call and only sends letters or postcards randomly...'_

"Kagome?" Inuyasha called out from the other side of the door. "You done yet?"

"Not yet," Kagome answered, dread creeping upon her as she started to comb her hair. _'They're dead I bet-'_

A faceless woman appeared on the mirror, instead of Kagome's reflection. Wounds started appearing, oozing out blood as she reached out a pale hand towards the horrorfied girl.

_'Come with me...'_ a voice whispered in Kagome's head.

Kagome screamed and turned to run towards the door, but the hand darted out of the mirror and grabbed the frantic girl from escasping.

_'Come with me...'_

"INUYASHA!" Kagome shouted, struggling with the death-grip. "INUYASHA!"

The hand gave a sharp yank and Kagome was pressed against the mirror and sink, screaming as loud as she could. Kagome placed her hands against the smooth object and tried to push herself off of it, at the same time trying to get rid of the hand that was clutching her shoulder that is now yanking on a clump of her hair. Soon, Kagome's hands started disappearing through the mirror and her screams grew louder.

_'Mirror, mirror on the wall...'_

The faceless woman was replaced by Rin's blank face, as more hands protruded from the mirror and held onto anything that they could grab onto the girl.

_'Who's the fairest of them all...?'_

Kagome's screams stopped suddenly and that was when Inuyasha finally appeared in the bathroom, his ghostly form flickering.

"Kagome?" he whispered hoarsely and noticed the bloody handprints on the mirror.

There, on the ground was Kagome's brush, covered in blood.

--

Inuyasha leaned casually against the wooden door of the bathroom, waiting for the girl to come out.

_Thump...thump..._

The dead hanyou didn't react to the sound of footsteps, but was alert.

_Thump...thump..._

"Life is a funny thing..." a monotone voice whispered hauntingly.

Inuyasha looked to the left, and there in the hallway, was a glowing girl, dressed in pure white, with white hair and black eyes. In her small pale hands was a rounded mirror. _'Another creation of the masked man?'_

"But death is even funnier..." the girl whispered and slowly walked towards the still hanyou.

Inuyasha tried to move, to leave, but could not. _'What is going on? Why am I always not able to move!? First the kid, now this other kid!'_

Then he heard Kagome's screams and tried to disappear, but he could not.

"I am Kanna..." Kanna murmured and turned her mirror towards the non-moving ghost.

Inuyasha could feel wisps of his form enter the mirror.

"The retriever of souls..." Kanna said and watched as peice by peice of the hanyou's form disappear into her mirror.

_'What did I do? I didn't do anything to be sent to Hell!'_ Inuyasha panickly thought when Kagome's screams intensified.

"You fell in love with the human girl, Kagome...

_'I don't love her!'_ Inuyasha screamed in his head as he tried to move.

"Soon you will realize you have fallen for the girl..." Kanna said quietly and saw only the upper part of his soul remaining, but it was not being sucked into her mirror. "What is happening?"

Inuyasha's mouth twitched into a grin, then into a full-blown smirk. The mirror started glowing and the face of a younger version of Inuyasha appeared on the mirror's surface. A ball of light slowly escaped from the confines of the object and circled the dead hanyou's upperbody before it became his lower body once more.  
Kanna looked confused before her mirror cracked and she turned into dust and floated away.

"INUYASHA!" came Kagome's screams from the other side of the door.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled and disappeared then reappeared in the empty bathroom. "Kagome?"

He looked at the smeared bloody handprints on the mirror's surface and the bloody comb that belonged to Kagome.

--

Her head appeared in the mirror and watched the distressed hanyou spin in circles, trying to find a clue where the girl went. _'From what I heard, this masked man sure loves to play games...'_

--

_Drip..._

_Drip..._

He looked up and noticed a dark stain on the ceiling. A dark blob splattered against the linoleum tiles.

_Drip..._

_Drip..._

Inuyasha was feeling distressed and angry. Again, the masked man found another way to take Kagome away and inflict more pain on her already tortured soul. "That's blood..."

The anonymous face on the mirror was still unknown to the hanyou and continued to watch him.

"No...Kagome!" Inuyasha screamed and grabbed a soap dispenser, but his hand went right through it. "Huh?"

After many attempts on trying to grab onto something solid, he decided to levitate objects and threw them at the growing stain on the ceiling. Once a big hole was formed, a body fell out and Inuyasha momentarily forgot he could not grab solid objects and the body fell right through him, landing with a bloody splat.

The girl in the mirror opened her mouth in horror and looked at the dead female on the ground. _'Oh my gosh! What did I get myself into?!'_

The masked man appeared behind the frightened girl and whispered in her ear, "Too late to back down now. You are now trapped in my web of deceit, horror and blood, girl..."

Inuyasha looked at the mirror and finally noticed the familair face in the mirror. "Ayame...did you...you...?"

The female in the mirror shook her head and said, "No...I didn't know...what I just placed myself into..." before she disappeared, her fearful eyes the last part of her face to disappear.

Inuyasha fell to his knees and reached out a trembling hand towards the dead female's cheek. He brushed her raven-hair away from her pale cheeks and silently mourned for the dead woman. Inuyasha bowed his head and a note calmly fell down from the hole, landing on top of her still chest. The hanyou gingerly picked it up and unfolded it, reading its contents.

_Inuyasha, you're playing a dangerous game..._

_PS. soon, you will know of my identity, but do keep guessing..._

_Yours truly, the Masked Man._

Inuyasha watched how the note was erupted into flames and disappeared, but his mind was on the woman lying brokenly on the floor, creating a puddle of blood beneath her.

--

I have no reason why it took me a long time to update, but I FINALLY updated! OH YEAH BABY!

Well, I'm guessing the masked man's identity will soon be revealed in the next three/two chapters or so, so keep on guessing!...

**REVIEW&REVIEW**

-Jessica OUTZ


	10. Past Secrets

**Notes**

--

Chap 1o- Past Secrets

--

_Dirty hands glided softly on the cover of a book. She slipped her fingers under the cover and slowly flipped the book open. The pages were all blank for a few moments until lighted and red letters began to form words._

_Slowly at first, then quickly, the blank pages were filled with words then sentences._

_'Release me...'_

_'I WANT OUT...'_

_'I wish for the death of the man who killed me...release me so I can feed on his blood and devour him...'_

_So many sentences or quotes of killing filled the book, but the last few pages, remained blank. The girl flicked out a feather, dipped in blood and started to write in the book._

_'I wish to be freed...'_

_She read what she wrote and closed the book, hiding it under a loose board in her house as she heard her mother call for her father, but no one called for her. No one at all._

--

Her eyes snapped open as she remembered the book she created and forced all souls that bothered her into that object. _'So long ago...'_

"Get up Rin, the dead do not sleep," the masked man commanded and watched the lying spirit slowly get up, her head -for once- attached to her neck, although lopsidedly.

_'Why does this thing have such power over me?'_ Rin asked herself and grabbed her doll.

"Tell me, how did you die?"

Well, that was unexpected...

"Why do you want to know?" Rin asked, clutching her doll closer to her chest.

"That was not a question, it was a command."

Rin glared at the masked man and began talking, "I killed myself, that you know. I was born with the ability to communicate with the dead. People were afraid of me, my own parent's were terrified of me.

I was alone. I had no one and no one wanted me. In a fit of rage and depression, I accidentally opened a portal between the living world and the world of the dead. Many people died from being possessed by evil souls.

I managed to close it and my family and I were banished from the village, and the lands. We walked many miles, yet everyone knew who I was and refused to help us. My parent's didn't abandon me, that I was grateful, but I should've ran away..."

There was a silence as Rin tried to continue on, but the day, the horrible day, still was vivid, like she was reliving the whole experience all over again.

"My parent's tried to kill me. They managed to injure me, but did not kill me. I ran and never did I turn back around. I was alone, until I pass this village and they did not know who I was. They gave me food and a home.

I made some friends and one even gave me her favorite toy, this doll I have right now. Good things never last for long and youkai started to attack the village I resided in, killing many. I once again, in a fit of anger and deepression over the loss of my home and new friends, opened another portal.

It was too big and too strong for me to close. I didn't know how to handle my powers properly and I lost it. I couldn't handle being all alone in my life and I...killed myself. You found me haunting the house my parent's lived in, ruining their lives as they did mine," Rin finished.

"Then you moved on did you not?"

_'Yes, I did. When my parent's died, they were sorry for trying to kill me, they realized their mistakes a few seconds before they died and that gave me peace...until you came along and ignited the hate within me once more and brought me here to the world of the living, making me do you biddings!'_ Rin thought angrily. "Yes, I suppose so..."

_'I was supposed to be free...'_

--

She ran. Where? Why? She doesn't know the answers to those questions. All she knew was that she has to run or else something bad might happen. After being pulled in the mirror, the girl ended up in another dimension. Blood smeared handprints were all over her skin and clothes, but she ignored the itchy feeling of the drying blood and continued to figure out why she was here and with whom. Distinctly, she could hear another pair of footsteps behind her and she sped up, trying to outrun him or her.

She ran in the never-ending inky blackness until she came to a full stop in front of a long plane mirror. It looked normal. Her reflection did what she did and looked like what what she looked like with the blood and all.

As the footsteps came closer, the reflection moved on its own accord. It smiled and fangs poked out of its mouth as its nails lenghthened into claws. Its eyes turned from the different coloured eyes to pure scarlet red as the whites of its eyes turned a shade darker. It lifted a hand out and it came out of the mirror, ripples circling around its arm.

Kagome gasped and backed up, but bumped into something. It was smooth, cold to the touch and glass. She turned around and was met with another reflection of herself, but when she was ten years old. The ten year old Kagome smiled up at the eighteen year old Kagome as she did card tricks. The hand from the other mirror grabbed the confused girl's shoulder and pulled her until her back was lying flat against the surface of the mirror.

"You use to be like that," the thing in the mirror whispered spitefully and used her other hand to point at the care-free child in the other mirror.

Kagome winced when the arm snaked around her neck, slightly choking her, but she was still able to breathe.

"Now look at you now," with those words, the child Kagome grew older, her shoulders slumped, bags under her eyes, pale skin and the fire in her eyes were gone. Dimmed, yes. Distinguished, almost.

The footsteps sounded louder, meaning the person is closing up on Kagome. The said girl struggled against the thing that was keeping her against her will.

"Let me go," she rasped out.

The thing laughed darkly and said, "Don't you see girl? There's no hope for you! You can't save yourself or any of the souls trapped here!"

Kagome ignored the thing and struggled against it. Her throat was hurting from all the screaming she's been doing and the pressure on her throat didn't help matters when the footsteps came closer. "Let me go!"

"You are already on your way to be trapped in the darkness of your heart! You no longer are the sun Kagome, with yor bright smiles and cheery laughter. No, you're slowly losing it and you'll be a hollow shell of what you once were..."

_'No...'_ Kagome thought sadly, stopping her struggling all together.

The thing smirked and the reflection of Kagome twisted into something else. A faceless woman appeared with dark brown, almost black, short curly hair.

Kagome gasped when she recognized a small scar on the faceless woman's cheek. "Mom...?"

The faceless woman nodded and slowly creeped out of the mirror, one hand reaching out for the shocked teenager in front of her.

"Welcome back to the family sis," a demonic voice said.

Kagome craned her neck and saw her brother, or what looks like her brother standing there, white fangs poking out of his lips as they twisted into a sneer.

"Souta..."

--

She sat on a rock, staring at the water, sighing. "I should never have done what I did, but the human heart is a complex thing, especially when mixed with emotions of abandonement and depression..."

"What did you do in the past?"

Izayoi yelped and turned around, seeing it was only Sesshomaru, she calmed down.

"It's all my fault we are were we are now. If I hadn't done what I did, we would not be here. We would be free and in peace..."

"Did what in the past?"

Izayoi looked in the water once more before whispering one word, which made Sesshomaru look at the woman he called 'mom' as a child with disbelief and shock.

--

"It's been a long time eh?" Souta said and slowly walked towards the slumped body of his sister.

Kagome didn't respond and bowed her head in defeat.

"How's my dear sister doing? Well I hope."

_'Fight back...'_

"Well I'm doing splendid! I have these magnificent powers and sis, check out my claws!"

_'Don'te let him win...'_

_'I can't do this no more...what's the chance of me saving all these souls?'_

_'High, if you just believe. Please Kagome...do not let the deaths of Sango, Miroku and Kikyo and many others be in vain...believe...'_

Kagome slightly lifted her head and glared at the smirking boy in front of her. "You are not my brother and I refuse to accept the fact that it is hopeless!"

"It is hopeless sister dearest. Only you can help yourself, the rest of the souls here cannot do anything to help you, for they are afterall...dead."

The fire that welled in Kagome was once again dimmed and the girl hung her head once more.

"You're wrong," another voice whispered.

Kagome lifted her head up and another soul appeared behind Souta. A female wolf youkai.

"The dead can help those in the living if they choose to and I choose to help!" the wolf youkai shouted and the mirrors broke, releasing Kagome as she fell to her knees. The youkai grabbed the fallen girl by the elbow and started dragging her, Souta's angered voice yelling in the background.

"Thank you, but it is hopeless," Kagome whispered as she followed the youkai.

"Really? Listen up girl. You will not allow the previous deaths be in vain! They died for a reason and it is up to you to prove why they died! They died protecting you so you can help all these tortured souls move on!"

Kagome gasped, "You were the voice in my head back there!"

"Yeah, the name's Ayame. I'm Kouga's fiancee."

--

An object that has been in hiding for many decades glowed faintly, as words started to form on a blank page.

_'The love we thought we had, was never there to begin with. The love I had with another man is what I have been looking forward all my life, but I ignored the fact that our forbidden love would eventually kill us in the end and those we hold dear to our hearts...'_

--

**review&review =D**

**-stealthy jess 8-D**


	11. Haunted

**Notes**

--

Chap 11- Haunted

--

He couldn't think. He couldn't do anything as he just floated there, disbelief and shock evident in his dead eyes. The other soul stared at the lake guiltily before she looked up into the eyes of her step-son.

"Sesshomaru," she started.

"I never thought someone so kind-hearted such as you would do something so...impure," Sesshomaru stated coolly.

"I felt abandoned and alone Sesshomaru, you have to understand that. I am only human! I am and never will be perfect-"

"Enough excuses," Sesshomaru whispered lowly, anger starting to creep into his transparent figure. "Does Inuyasha know of your...betrayal?"

Izayoi bowed her head and if she could cry, she would. "No. I never thought..."

"You didn't think at all you traitor."

Izayoi remained quiet, her hand lightly brushing the calm water. Sesshomaru growled before he turned and started to float away, but before he went, he asked another question.

"So the masked man, the one who killed all of us many centuries ago and brought us back to this world where this all started is-"

"...yes..."

"How long did you know?"

"I always knew...I didn't want you guys to know, for it would break you..."

"You are pathetic..." Sesshomaru stated before he finally drifted off, leaving the hunched form of the dead woman in the woods.

--

He could feel himself slowly leaving this world. After burying the dead body of Kagome's mother, he immediately searched for the missing girl. He also told Kouga that Ayame was brought in this mess and Kouga too went to look for the dead female wolf youkai.

Too bad the masked man felt that Inuyasha was no longer needed and brought him to a room where peices of his soul are being slowly brought to Limbo. The dead hanyou couldn't move, couldn't even think as the searing pain of his soul being ripped apart dulled his ghostly mind.

The masked man stood in the middle of the room and watched the dead hanyou slowly disappear form the world of the living.

"This is what you get for attaching yourself to a living, human girl," the masked man retorted, crossing his arms. "I would've allowed you stay here, but your feelings towards the girl would ruin everything..."

Inuyasha did not respond, but focused on staying whole. Orbs of white light filled the room, but slowly disappeared, weakening the already weak and defenseless hanyou.

"Too bad you will not see your precious human girl die slowly as I will possess her and take her form..." the masked man grinned and continued to watch the slowly fading soul of the dead hanyou.

All of a sudden, small snipets of his previous life flashed in his corrupted mind.

The meeting of a beautiful inu youkai.

His first son.

The death of his mate.

The meeting of a kind-hearted woman.

His second son.

His mourning.

Her betrayal.

His killings.

"Inuyasha!"

He shook his head, ridding himself of these memories and and turned to greet the horrified woman whom he hates at the moment.

"Hello Izayoi dearest..."

--

"You think you can escape this place?" Souta's voice bellowed in the un-ending darkness.

Ayame and Kagome continued to run.

"You can never escape this place..."

"Go away you stupid brat!" Ayame replied, glaring at nothing in particular.

"This is not a place...this is Kagome's soul..."

Kagome stumbled and fell to the floor, Ayame turning around to help the fallen girl.

"Kagome?"

"My...soul?" the shaken girl whispered, refusing to get up, even if Ayame threatened to haunt her.

The un-ending darkness.

The confusion.

Kagome's soul had lost faith in herself, too concentrated in the darkness she is being sucked in. Too much. It's just too much for an 18 year old to handle.

_Too much..._

Her mother's face creeped into her mind, her brother's carefree laughter tinkled in her ears, Yazi's kind yet strict persoanlity, Izayoi's help, Sango's and Miroku's bickering, Shippou's help, her father's apology, Kouga saving her life and Inuyasha.

Inuyasha. That one word brightened Kagome's soul and a bright streak of light pushed itself in the blank emptiness. He could've left her alone, but he remained by her side. Another streak of light. He stayed with her and comforted her in her time of need. A few more streaks of light.

Because of Inuyasha, she fought to free the rest of souls from their confinement to this house. More streaks of light.

"Kagome," Ayame whispered at the now glowing girl.

"What is this?!" Souta shouted in the brightening soul of Kagome.

"I am not the saviour, Inuyasha is..." Kagome whispered, a genuine smile on her face.

A flash of light erupted in Kagome's soul.

--

She sat up, sighing in relief, until it dawned on her that her new companion had two ghost children surrounding her. One that looks eerily like Inuyasha and the other whom looks eerily like Kagome.

"Is he gone?" the small ghost girl asked meekly.

"Yeah...he is. He can see through my eyes, but we cannot contact each other for he is too far away..." the other child replied, caressing the uncouncious body of the older Kagome.

"Eh?" Ayame said aloud, capturing the attention of both ghost children. "Eh?"

Suddenly, winds picked up in the hallway, as a piercing scream was heard, making all ghosts present wince from the volume. Chains appeared and burst from the ground, linking itself to the shocked wolf youkai.

A hole appeared underneath the struggling dead female, who growled and yelped as the chains tugged her more deeper. The two ghost children sat there, watching with pity as the wolf youkai was unwillingly dragged away by the chains.

The hole and chains disappeared, but the winds grew stronger, and more growls were heard in the distance.

Sesshomaru and Kouga were taken away in the same fashion as Ayame. Only the two ghost children remained. The only ones who stand in between the masked man and his evil intentions. The winds still did not die, nor did the piercing scream.

Inuyasha growled when black petals appeared out of no where, floating lazily towards the ground as the wind slowly died. The scream slowly faded as the small and wounded figure of Rin appeared, along with her doll and a book.

Kagome's younger self gasped and Inuyasha stood in a protective stance in front of the unmoving body of the older Kagome.

Rin coolly looked at the two ghosts before her gaze settled on the teenaged face of Kagome.

"I am here to deliver a message for you..." and with that, Rin disappeared, leaving the book in the hallway.

_'I want to be free...I want to be a child once more...'_

Kagome gasped and she bolted upright, placing a hand on her chest as she tried to slow the fast paced beating of her heart.

"You're awake," Inuyasha said. "Are you okay?"

"Everybody's fading from this world Kagome! Soon, no one will be here to stop the masked man form getting you besides me and him!" Kagome's younger self cried out and pointed to herself and the younger version of Inuyasha.

"Fading? You mean...all souls are leaving this world and going to the world of the dead...right now?"

"Yes," Inuyasha clarified, nodding solmenly. "Inuyasha is already...gone..."

Kagome nodded and noticed the book lying in the hallway. She crawled towards it and opened the book. She skimmed the pages filled with phrases about death and revenge and envy. Her eyes widened some more.

_'The love we thought we had, was never there to begin with. The love I had with another man is what I have been looking forward all my life, but I ignored the fact that our forbidden love would eventually kill us in the end and those we hold dear to our hearts...'_

_'More riddles. So, a woman fell in love with another man...how is that forbidden? Did their parent's hate each other? No, then the masked man would not kill her. Unless, she cheated on her husband with another man! Then, the masked man killed her and killed the people they cared for. Again, why does the masked man keep killing these people?' _Kagome thought.

Red letters began to appear on a blank page.

_'Sister, sister, where are thou sister?'_

_'Souta!'_ Kagome thought, as bloody and childish handprints started appearing on the walls.

_'Why did you let them kill me sister? We are siblings, we are supposed to have each other's back's...forever...'_

Kagome screamed when she fell to the ground, feeling a heavy and painful weight on her back. She screamed in agony as bloody scratches appeared on her back, as child-sized handprints started showing on Kagome's hunched figure.

"Kagome!" both ghost children cried out, tyring to locate the one who is giving the older Kagome pain.

_'I love you sister...don't you love me?'_

A heart shape wound was created on Kagome's back, slowly leaking out blood. Kagome continued to scream in pain, trying to rid the invisible dead boy on her back.

"Souta, please stop!" Kagome begged, crying out in pain.

The red letters stopped and Kagome felt the weight lifted off her back. She laid on the ground, twitching in pain as she wheezed. The two ghost children rushed to help the injured female, but a roar was heard before chains rushed upwards from the ground and dragged their screaming souls away.

"Kagome! Run! You don't have much time!" Inuyasha's younger self cried out before he was pulled away, leaving only the wheezing and injured girl in the hallway filled with bloody child-sized handprints and a book.

A note fluttered on Kagome's form as she laid there, trying to ignore the pain. The 18 year old weakly lifted an arm and with shaky hands, opened the new note and read, but dropped it and scampered away from it when done reading it.

_Sister...remember when we were young, you were always afraid of monsters under your bed? Well I fought them for you...but they defeated me..._

Kagome's eyes locked gazes with something in the corner. Souta's head with his jaw broken, as tendons of flesh was scattered gruesomely on his young face. That memory will forever be fresh in Kagome's mind.

_I screamed for you sister... but you weren't there to save me...from the monsters under your bed..._

The 18 year old couldn't tear her eyes away as an arm revealed itself from the corner, grabbing the head of Souta and a _thing_ crawled from the corner. Nothing could descirbe the horrid creature as many horns poked out of its body and slowly dragged itself towards the whimpering Kagome.

The head was pushed aside by the creature, and the broken jaw of Souta dropped even further.

_From the boogeyman...who will save you now, sister...here it comes...who do you scream for?_

Kagome painfully scuttled away from the creature as it dragged its body closer to her body, until her back hit a wall. She clenched her eyes in fear, but opened them when she felt something drip onto her face.

The creature was towering over her form and a mouth appeared on the body, and rushed down, delivering the final blow.

_We can finally be together...siblings forever..._

A scream filled with fear and horror swept the house away, echoing in the dead of night.

--

**_5 mins before Kagome was attacked..._**

Inuyasha slowly blinked. He was aware of what was going around him, but he can only make out voices. He saw two fuzzy forms of two souls across from him, arguing. He knew it won't be long before he disappears, forever this time. He also noticed chained souls beside him and internally groaned. Sesshomaru, Kouga and Ayame.

He closed his eyes and just laid there, accepting his fate. The intense pain of his soul being ripped was still there, but he learned to ignore it and focus on nothing. The agruing voices caught his attention as he tried to make out what they were saying.

"Le...im...go-o...I-I-n...ta...o-o...!"

"He-e...be..er...de-e..d...lo-o..e..."

"He-e-e...or...o-on!"

"I-I...o-oped...c-a...ing...lo-o-o...g...a...o-o..."

Just before he closed his eyes and let go, Inuyasha clearly heard his mother's sentence as shock and hatred filled his entire being, but the sentence will forever haunt him.

"Why do you do this Inu-tashiou?!"

_'Father...?'_

--

**OH SNAP! INU-TASHIOU'S (inuyasha and sesshomaru's father) THE MASKED MAN?!?!? dunna, bet you guys didn't think the great dog youkai would be the murderer eh? ^^**

**anywho, there was chap 11 of NOTES, tell me, how u guys liking this story? Do I need anything more to improve on? and and and, if u have any questions about the story, leave it in your reviews and i'll do my best to explain it =D**

**fare thee well...for now...**

**REVIEW&REVIEW**

-jess


	12. Playing Pt I

**Notes**

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and company ='( , but I do own the plotline ^^

--

Chap 12- Playing pt 1

--

His ears burrowed itself in his ghostly hair, trying to block out the peircing screams of the dead. The souls wound itself around his own form, voicing out their pain, their rage, every negative feeling they have in this place.

'_Where am I...?'_ the only answer he recieved were the pained screams around him.

Inuyasha growled and swiped his claws at the annoying pesky souls, but they refuse to leave him alone.

'_Go away!_'

They didn't listen to him. No one did.

Then he noticed something in the foggy distance...

--

She weakly opened her eyes, and gasped in shock. The thing was pushing against the figure of her faceless mother, who stood in between her and the thing that was trying to kill her. The faceless woman started glowing. Started as a dull white, to a pure white.

Soon, human and familiar features started appearing on the woman's face. Also, the thing started shrinking and Souta's head started disappearing in the same fashion as Kaede's head did. The glow strengthened, until Kagome could clearly see the figure of her mother, holding the tired body of her brother, free of the hate and wounds he use to carry.

"Ma...souta?" Kagome whispeed, disbelief on her face.

"Kagome...we are sorry for not being strong enough to withold the darkness within our souls..." Mrs. Higurashi said softly, "I love you, my Kagome..."

"I'm sorry sister!" Souta cried out, tears of regret falling down his cheeks. "I love you..."

Kagome gulped and reached a hand towards her last family members, whispering, "I love you too..."

But the forms of the Higurashi's were gone, and so was the white light. A note, with a red ribbon, fluttered in Kagome's lap.

__

Be safe.

"Awww, a tender moment between family members," Rin grinned, her face cracking. "How touching..."

--

Sesshomaru glared at his father with all the hate and anger that has been bottled within his soul since he died. Kouga and Ayame gasped. When they were alive, they knew the great tales of the Lord Inu-Tashiou of the Western lands. Until his family were murdered and the lord disappeared.

So this is where the great dog youkai disappeared off to. He was the murderer. He was the one who spread fear acorss the lands. He was the one who killed his own mate and sons, but for what reason?

"Why do you this Inu-Tashiou? You use to be a caring, devoted, gen-"

"Use to be dearest," Inutashiou, the masked man, scoffed. "That was the past..."

"Either way, you killed your own mate, your own _sons_! For what though? Why? You monster! I hope you rot in He-" Izayoi never got a chance to finish her sentence for chains wrapped around her and slammed her againt the wall, right beside her step-son, Sesshomaru.

Inu-Tashiou eyed Sesshomaru, Kouga, Izayoi and Ayame coolly, before another hole appeared, and two ghost children cried out, thrashing their arms widly.

"Hello there children," Inu-Tashiou said and he toook off the mask. Cold eyes sweeped the room that occupied, as his short and cropped silver hair floated lazily above his broad shoulders.

The two children forze and looked wide-eyed at the dead dog youaki of the west.

"Pa?" the ghost child of Inuyasha whimpered, hesistantly reaching a hand towards the father he looked up to.

"Inuyasha, no!" everybody warned, except Inu-tashiou himself, but it was too late.

Inu-Tashiou floated forward, seizing his son by the arm, ignoring the gasp of alarm. He ignored the girl whom tried to grab his son, but she too was slammed against the wall, beside Izayoi.

"No! Inuyasha!"

"The fool!"

"Oh crap..."

"Oh no..."

"No! Let my son go! Inuyasha!"

"Hello boy," Inu-Tashiou sneered. "How ya doing son?"

"Let me go!" Inuyasha whimpered, trying to release the tight hold on his small arm. "Let me go!"

Inu-Tashiou didn't answer and instead, stared at the place where the older Inuyasha faded. "Why are you existing? You should've faded with your older half..."

Inuyasha just glared at his father, even baring his small ghostly fangs. "Well...I didn't!"

"I can see that-"

A peircing scream and harsh winds started to enter the room the souls occupied. Inu-Tashiou narroed his eyes and growled, before throwing his son away from his form, and towards the wall where Inuyasha's older half use to be.

"Rin..." Inu-tashiou sneered as the figure of the dead child appeared, wearing a face of boredom and absolute loathing, holding her doll and a book in her arms. He also noticed the other girl beside the child, "Kagome..."

With a swish of Rin's and Kagome's hand, all was silent, except the growling and tense atmosphere.

"Kagome. How was meeting your father after so many years? How was it like to see the man who hurt you, your mother and your brother repeatedly?" Inu-Tashiou grinned, thinking Kagome did not fully get over Kagome's father's actions.

Kagome just smiled calmly, her eyes void of any emotion, except that of quiet reservation.

"Inu-Tashiou, I challenge you..." Rin said loudly, a wicked smile creeping on her face and no one noticed the slight movements of Kagome's lips.

Inu-Tashiou rose a delicate eyebrow. "Do you now child? Have you forgotten? I was the one who brought you here, I own this home and I own everything and everyone that belongs to this home..."

Rins wicked grin widened even more. "Have you forgotten I have the powers to control and summon the dead at my will?"

"Your powers have weakened considerably," Inu-Tashiou countered, smirking in triumph. "You cannot control me..."

"True..." Rin's grin turned into a full-blown smirk. "Unless you find someone else who can...someone who is alive..."

Inu-Tashiou's eyes widened and with a roar of fury, he dashed towards the quiet human girl, but Kagome raised her head, and with a twitch of her fingers, the book came to life, and many souls twisted out of the confines of the book and towards the raging soul.

"_Dance of Death..._" Kagome whispered, raising her arms above her head.

Rin stood calmly, holding the book in front of her, her smirk never leaving her face.

Inu-Tashiou screamed in annoyance, as the souls whizzed around him. The others watched with horrifc fascination as the soul of the great lord of the West, started having wounds.

"I hereby challenge you, Inu-Tashiou, to a game..." Rin said and shut the book, the souls disappearing. Kagome's lips moved once more, but it was unnoticeable.

Kagome swiftly walked forwards, standing in front of Inu-Tashiou. She raised a hand and lightly touched the soul of Inu-Tashiou, black tendrils circling around Kagome's wrist before she pulled away...

"Tag, you're it," both Kagome and Rin moved their mouths, but only Kagome's voice was heard.

Kagome turned around and took off, a calm smile on her face. Rin started laughing, as she too turned around, "Catch me if you can..."

Inu-Tashiou roared once more and chased after the two females, his soul blazing red and black.

--

"How do we get out of here?" Ayame asked, tugging weakly against the chains that bound her against the wall.

"Oh hell no..." Kouga whispered, staring at the white orbs slowly appearing in the air and the twitching blob in the corner. "What in seven hells are those?!"

"They are here to torture us for we cannot do anything to defend ourselves," Sesshomaru said, slight fear shining in his eyes.

"It's starting," Izayoi gasped, "We all are fading..."

Then the pain made itself known.

Inuyasha and Kagome stared at the screaming souls of Izayoi, Kouga, Ayame, even Sesshomaru, as their soul started ripping itself. The things slowly crawled towards the screaming souls, their mouths wide open in hunger. Their pointed black fangs held crusted blood on them, as their drool slowly leaked out of their mouths.

They immdiately latched on to the souls, inflicting more pain, as they dug their fangs on the screaming souls, enjoying the pain and fear. They pushed their fangs harder through the souls, and Izayoi screamed, as she started leaking out a black mist. Sesshomaru and Kouga and Ayame soon started leaking black mist as well.

The younger halves of Inuyasha and Kagome are connected to someone who is alive or cannot move on until her older self finally accepts her past, so they do not get sent to the world of the dead. Inuyasha closed his eyes and a whine passed his lips, wanting to help, but he could not. Kagome averted her eyes, but then she started pulsing.

Slowly at first, then quickly. She did not feel pain of being separated, for it is impossible. No, she felt the feeling of acceptance and smiled, saying goodbye to her hanyou friend and the screaming souls, before fading completely.

Kagome is finally whole.

Izayoi stopped screaming.

Sesshomaru stopped squirming.

Kouga stopped reisisting.

Ayame stopped pleading.

All was quiet in the room, except the dry sobs of the younger hanyou as he was surrounded by many orbs of white light, before they all disappeared, leaving him in the dark once more.

--

She had Rin's doll laying on her right shoulder, with her puppet, Rin's image, walking beside her.

_Inu-Tashiou does not fall for tricks as easily. He is too wise and too smart. You must dig up his past and use that against him. Weaken him so you can drag his soul to in this book, then create a portal between Hell and this world, then you place his soul there for eternity. But you must be careful to not make the portal to big..._

Rin wrote in the book, the only way Kagome and Rin can contact each other.

--flashback--

__

"Awww, a tender moment between family members," Rin grinned, her face cracking. "How touching..."

"You..." Kagome hissed, ignoring her wounds and the blood.

"I have a deal that you cannot turn down," Rin said and walked closer to the red book, while hugging her doll. "It will help you stay ahead of the masked man..."

"I want nothing to do with you! You work with him!" Kagome shouted, well tried to.

Rin snapped.

"I never wanted to be here! I moved on when I died! He came and reminded me of the past that I had to endure as a child! He fueled my anger and my hate! He brought me to this place and I had no choice but to work for him! My abilities of communicating and summoning the dead weakened considerably!" Rin stopped, glaring at Kagome.

"I can't stop him Kagome. I do not have the strength or powers to defeat him. You do. I have the intelligence to know what to do for I know how the dead works. You do not. Seperately, we cannot defeat him. Together we can defeat him..." Rin finished, walking towards Kagome's hunched form on the ground.

"How do I know you're not lying..." Kagome mumbled, cringing away from Rin. "You could be tricking me..."

"I want freedom as much as you do. I am dead. Us souls are supposed to be free once we have died. Free from the repsonbility, free from the pain, free from everything. I want out Kagome. You want to live. Many have died and more will die if you do not make up your mind!"

Kagome remained quiet. "What do I have to do?"

Rin smirked. "A part of me will be combined with you-"

"No-"

"You didn't even let me finish! I will not possess you. Your powers are not trained in the least and you need some sort of anchor so you do not do the same mistake I did as a child," Rin explained.

"What mi-"

"None of your business," Rin snapped. "My soul, which possess the memories of my mistake- the mistake I do not want you to do- will be the anchor, for it will calm your powers enough so you do not destroy yourself. Only the part of my soul that remembers my past will stay with you, while the part will go to another place. A place where I cannot contact you..."

Kagome slowly nodded.

"We can only contact each other through this book. You need to use blood to write in this book so it can be transferred to the place where I am in..."

Kaome nodded again and crawled over and held the book to her chest.

--End flashback--

So that's what the two girls did. Kagome was the brawns and Rin was the brains. Kagome then conjured up the image of Rin. Like a puppet. It looks like Rin, but it is being controlled by Kagome.

"I found you..."

Kagome coolly turned around, eyeing the enraged dead dog-youkai in front of her.

"You are a traitor," Kagome said in a song-song voice. "Traitor, traitor..."

"Shut up girl..." Inut-Tashiou warned as he crept closer to Kagome.

"Aren't doggies loyal animals?" Kagome asked herself and titled her head to the right, mocking confusion. "Bad puppy you are!"

"DIE WENCH!"

Kagome stood there and waited. Her eyes flashed dark brown as she raised her hand, and she wiggled her fingers. Kagome felt no fear for Rin's book will protect her for she can call upon souls to use against Inu-Tashiou.

"_Past love,_" Kagome whispered.

Winds rushed in the hallway Kagome and Inu-Tashiou were in. The dead soul stopped, as invisible binds stopped him from going any further. Windows started to crack, but then they broke, sending shards of glass everywhere, yet Kagome paid no head to them.

The image of Rin appeared, holding the red book opened in her palms. The book started flipping pages until it stopped in one page.

Red letters started appearing.

Inu-Tashiou watched with fascination, but it turned into shock and horror as the winds died down, and the glass stopped breaking, as the last words were written in the book.

__

Hello Inu-Tashiou...It is I,Inutashia...

--

Outside the house, no one knew the horrors of their new neighbour, Kagome, face within the confines of the walls. They do not know what is happening or what has already occured. No one knew anything, for if they did, they are that of the dead.

All they knew were the stories and rumours about this house and its origins. All they knew were if you listened carefully, in the dead of night, you will hear multiple screams, vocalizing their pain they are suffering.

Then again, those could just be their imagination. Except one and her brother...

"Mama!" a teenaged girl, maybe 17 or 18 cried out, huge blobs of tears falling rapidly down her pale cheeks. "MAMA!"

A woman burst through the door, immediately comforting her eldest child. The father soon accompanied his family and worked on shushing his daughter.

"So much blood..." the girl whispered dreadfully, her eyes wide and unseeing. "Red....everywhere..."

"Shhhh sweetheart..." the mother cooed, trying to bring back her daughter from her nightmares.

"It was all a bad dream..." the father whispered, rubbing his daughter's back. "A bad dream..."

"No! It wasn't! I could hear them!" the girl cried out, shaking her head, trying to rid the pained screams and pleading voices from her dreams.

"Sweetie, it's all a bad dream, nothing more-"

"No! It wasn't! The new family, the Higurashi's, they are all dieing...one by one..." the girl's voice quieted, but the fear remained there, strong as ever. "One by one..."

"Ayumi, it was only a bad dream, nothing more. The Higurashi family are probably sleeping and you screaming late at night will interupt their sleep," Ayumi's father reasoned, trying to soothe his panicking daughter.

"But," Ayumi started, "Kagome hasn't been to school in a few days..."

"She might've came down with something," Ayumi's mom replied quickly, smiling. "Go to sleep now."

"You're right," Ayumi said, before dozing off, yet the screams no one else heard continued to mock her.

"That's the third time this week," Ayumi's father commented, leaving the room with his wife in tow, not noticing a smudged handprint on the mirror in Ayumi's room.

"I'm worried about her. She has been having these frequent dreams about the Higurashi family dieing...one by one," Ayumi's mom whispered, thin trails of tears leaking down her eyes. "I'm so worried..."

"It will be fine. She's going though those teenage moments," Aymui's father mumbled, trying to soothe his wife's torment and his doubts.

"Why are you in there? Are you stuck?" a quiet voice whispered, interupting the couple's thoughts.

"Satsu..." the mother whispered, before dashing towards her youngest child's room.

She and her husband peeked in the room, watching their son, Satsu, a 7 year old boy sit on his bed, staring in the mirror.

"You are? How'd you get in there? Do you need help?" Satsu asked, oblivious to the two pairs of eyes watching him.

"Not him to..."

"Honey...call the doctor..."

"Kagome? Higurashi? Oh! They live a few houses down from here...she's going to die?"

__

"...they are all dieing...one by one..."

Ayumi's haunting voice whispered in the back of her mind.__

"One by one..."

"But she's too pretty to die...my sister always wanted to be friends with her...but something kept my sister away from Kagome. Ayumi, my sister, said she feels something _weird _when she goes near Kagome..."

__

"One by one..."

The parents then noticed a flash of a small child, wearing ancient clothes, covered in blood. They gasped in fright, but continued to watch in horror, until their son got out of bed and started walking towards the mirror.

Satsu stopped, halfway between the path towards the mirror and his bed. He craned his neck and looked at his parents and whispered, "I see dead people..."

The mother screamed and rushed in the room, her husband not to far, as they attempted to pull their son away from the mirror, for the mirror had small bloody handprints and messy writing...

_Wanna play?_

_--_

weee, Ayumi has been introduced..now, will she make it out of this alive? or be one with the dead, like so many before? HMMM, well, you must read 2 find out!

**REVIEW&REVIEW**

-jess


	13. Playing pt II

**Notes**

Time to answer some questions:

**Theloverofthe3inu's4ever**: Ahaha, I've never actually thought of being a horror novelist, thank you for the compliment ^^. Well, the little affections between Yash and Kag will be sorted out as the story unfolds...but **will** there be a happy ending for our fav couple? DUNNA ahah. I'm REALLY GLAD that you like this story ^^, it's fun writing it.

**Spidey meets Wizard-Theif**: This was not based on a movie. It was created by my insane imagination ^^! Thank you!

**animefreakculicious**: yep, this ayumi is the one who hangs out with Yuka and Eri

THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS GUYS =3

--

Chap 13- Playing pt 2

--

When he arrived, he was surprised. He was not alone. Rin stood there, in front of a mirror, with a blood-tipped feather. He growled and was about to turn away when her quiet voice reached his ears.

"Would you like to play?" Rin's head turned a 180, her dead eyes boring into Inuyasha's own. He shivered.

Inuyasha didn't respond and instead glared at the girl. "I'm good."

"Very well," Rin whispered and her head turned 180 degrees once more, watching the mirror...watching the boy.

"Why are you in there? Are you stuck?" a young human boy asked, sitting on his bed.

Rin opened her mouth, "I was brought here. I am stuck..."

"You are? How'd you get in there? Do you need help?" the boy asked.

"Yes. I was brought here," Rin repeated. "No, I do not need help. Your neighbour, Kagome, does..."

"Kagome? Higurashi? Oh! They live a few houses down from here...she's going to die?"

"She will be..."

Inuyasha stood there and just watched the interaction between Rin and a boy, through a mirror.

"But she's too pretty to die...my sister always wanted to be friends with her...but something kept my sister away from Kagome. Ayumi, my sister, said she feels something _weird _when she goes near Kagome..."

"I know," Rin eerily smiled when she got an idea. She might be dead, but she is still considered a child. She flicked out a blood-tipped feather and wrote on the mirror, while pressing her hand against the mirror.

_Wanna play?_

Inuyasha blinked and saw a little boy, being held back by his parents.

"What are you doing?!" Inuyasha barked when he realized what Rin was doing and came up beside the girl and pulling her back, but he gasped as small painful shocks went through his soul. He fell to his knees in glared at Rin who remained unfazed. "You..."

"I wanna play a game..." Rin said and looked down at the sentence she wrote.

_Wanna play_

"What kind of twisted game is this Rin?! Have you not tortured enough people already?!" Inuyasha shouted, his eyes blazing with fury.

Rin's head twisted once more, her fingers idly twirling the pen. "It's just for fun. It won't hurt anybody. Do you wish to play? The more the merrier..."

"No!" Inuyasha screamed and backed away from Rin, trying to put as much distance from her as possible. _'Kagome...'_

"This is the only way you can contact Kagome."

Inuyasha froze at the mention of Kagome. He hesistantly looked up and saw the young boy struggling against his parent's hold.

"No! I wanna play! I wanna play with them!" Satsu cried out, stretching his hand towards the mirror. "I wanna play! No!"

"Kagome?" Inuyasha whispered, as he slowly walked back to Rin and the image on the mirror changed.

Rin nodded slowly and reached out a hand, adding another smudged handprint beside the first one. "Satsu, the boy, can hear and see us. His sister, Kagome's classmate in school, can only see us, but she can hear other souls in the world of the living. She cannot hear us for we are in this world of the dead..."

"Why is this mirror showing them and not Kagome? Why do you want them?" Inuyasha hissed, eyeing the bloody handprints on the mirror and the words that frightened Satsu's parents'.

Rin didn't answer and watched as Ayumi slowly sat up, the fear still in her eyes.

--

"Hello?" Ayumi whispered, clutching the blankets tightly.

--

"Because this mirror chose to..." Rin whispered, "This mirror has been here in the beginning of time, maybe even before. No one knows why the mirror was here or how it got here. This mirror shoes people or places from the living world. Some souls that have not passed on yet come here to get a clue on why they have not moved on..."

"You still-"

"Something will happen to my book and we need Ayumi to contact Kagome for us. I've been contacting Kagome through my book...I needed the 'game' for Satsu to be a distraction so the parent's are fretting over their son, not knowing that Ayumi will partake in the real game. Then, Ayumi can sneak out of her house and go to your house to help Kagome. The real game does not involve Satsu at all, but Ayumi..."

--

Quiet. Nothing moved. Nothing spoke. It was quiet.

The dark hallway has many shards of glass littering the wooden floorboards, glinting as the dull moon shone against them. Many dark things were confined in this house that no one can ever dream of. Not even the smartest horror movie directors could ever create something as scary and horrifying as this. This is real. This is no movie. This is a life and death situation. Directors treated death as a game, not knowing the frightening truth behind it.

A raven-haired girl stood in front of a soul, with a puppet in front of her, the dead child from the feudal era, Rin. The ghost, who floated there, shock and horrid surprise flickered across his face as he opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Nothing moved. No distant barks. No honking of horns. No sound at all. Maybe people were uncounciously warned of the impeding danger their neighbour was in and did not want to make a sound, for it might cause her death. Maybe poeple could feel the dark aura around the house and were scared to make a sound for the things making the evil aura will hurt them.

_Hello Inu-Tashiou...It is I,Inutashia..._

That one sentence repeated itself in his ghostly mind. His first mate. The one whom died from a war. The one he could not forget. The one he could not let go. The one whom finally contacts him, in the most unlikeliest situation, Inutashia.

Red letters started appear in the book once more.

_You traitor...you killed my son...you killed your mate and her son...you TRAITOR!!_

The shards of glass started vigorously shaking, as the room temperature dropped. Kagome's breath could be seen as a foggy mist as she exhaled quietly. The walls started cracking as did the floor boards. A loud and angry moan erupted, as deep claw marks started tearing its way in the ancient house.

_How dare you....TRAITOR!_

Inu-Tashiou did nothing but stay still, his eyes taking in the scene. Kagome and Rin looked absolutely calm as his house was being destroyed by his first mate. He felt something touch his soul in a painful way and he held in his gasp of pain.

Then it suddenly stopped. The temperature returned. The glass shards stopped shaking and the loud moaning vanished. The invisble binds holding Inu-Tashiou snapped as the soul fell forwards, but caught himself, glaring at Kagome and Rin. His figure once again, turning in an angry red. "Even in death, my first mate won't ever harm me...she still loves me..."

"_Embrace of darkness_," Kagome mumbled and black orbs shot out of the book and towards Inu-Tashiou, whom raised his hand and swiped them away, neatly cutting them.

Kagome's eyes widened in astonishment before she composed herself once more. "_Embrace of darkness!_"

More orbs of black zoomed out of the book and towards the dead youkai, whom casually, yet angrily tore the black orbs.

"The dead cannot harm me. The dead you are feeding off of belongs to me. That book belongs to me. Rin belongs to me," Inu-Tashiou hissed, cracking his knuckles.

Kagome's eyes widended in panic as the puppet Rin closed the book. The book won't protect her no more. Rin's plan backfired. The souls Rin trapped in her book worked for Inu-Tashiou and they can never go against their leader.

"You belong to me Kagome."

Kagome turned and ran, fear finally making itself known once more, as she tried to leave this nightmare in a useless attempt. She tried escaping in one of the broken windows, but a force held her back. Inu-Tashiou held her back. Her puppet just stood there, holding the book.

She ran to many doors and windows, trying to break them open, trying to escape. She knew she couldn't beat Inu-Tashiou. Rin is just a child. She is just some unlucky girl who possesses these freakish powers. She was crazy to think that she could beat this dead dog youkai. The master of killing.

Inu-Tashiou destroyed the puppet and the book. Rin's image turned into dust, slowly disappearing. The pages of the book floated in the air, before black flames erupted from it, burning the pages. Rin's book was no more.

"HELP ME!"

Her pleas went unheard.

--

_"HELP ME!"_

Ayumi whimpered, shutting her eyes as she tried to ignore the pleas of a girl. "Please...leave me alone..."

_scrrrriiiiiiiiitccch_

Ayumi ducked underneath her blanket, placing her hands over her mouth, trying to stifle any sound. _'PLease go away. Please go away...please...'_

_sccccrrriiiiittttccccchhh_

"Ayumi," a quiet voice called out to the frightened girl. "Ayumi..."

"Go away..." Ayumi whispered, her eyes. "Please leave me alone..."

Quiet.

Tap, tap. Ayumi's back stiffened and she slowly turned around. She managed to stuff her fist in her mouth, only letting out a muffled scream as a dead woman, spitting out blood kneeled behind her, her golden eyes in her lap.

Ayumi threw the blanket off of her and dashed towards her door, but on its own, her door slowly started closing and panic welled in her. She ran faster and she never knew her bed was so far away from her door. She leapt for her doorknob, her fingertips brushing against the coold metal, but it moved and the door was closed.

Ayumi scarmbled and strated pulling on the doorknob tryint to open it, screaming for help. She banged her fists as the female dog youkai continued to stay under the red blanket. Ayumi was sobbing, weakly pulling the doorknob as the golden eyeballs slowly rolled from under the covers and continued rolling until it was mere inches from Ayumi's feet.

"HELP ME! MAMA! PAPA! SATSU! ANYBODY! HELP ME!" Ayumi screeched, slamming her plams against the wood object. "LET ME OUT!"

"Help her..." the dead female youkai whispered.

The form from underneath Ayumi's blanket disappeared, as the blanket fell back on the bed. The eyeballs disappeared and the door was unlocked. Ayumi wobbly stood up, her skin lost all natural colour as she flung the door open, but did not step out of her room for she noticed two smudged handprints on her mirror...

_Wanna play?_

--

Kagome shakily brought her hands up to attempt to take off the ghostly hands holding her up by her throat, but it was futile. Inu-Tashiou showed no emotions, as he lifted the human girl up by her throat and brought her near his face.

To anyone else, it would've looked like Kagome was floating in mid-air, but she was not. She gapsed for breath and kicked her legs out, but nothing worked.

"I should not have allowed you to live so long, but you were amusing to play with..."

Black dots started making itself known in Kagome's vision.

"You ruined my son...he use to be such an obedient little puppy, until you came along. I wanted him to see how much pain and suffering I will bring to you, but he just had to have feelings for you. A _human_ girl," Inu-Tashiou sneered and tightened his grip.

Kagome closed her eyes and fell limp in the apparition's hold. For a few seconds that is.

Her eyes snapped open, revealing gold eyes. Inu-Tashiou nearly dropped her in shock, but caught himself.

"Why...?" Kagome's mouth moved, but the voice of the past left her mouth.

"Wonderful Kagome. Allow other souls to take possession of your body? Very clever, but that will not faze me in the slightest. I have moved on from my darling first mate-"

"And that is why you still have my body hanging in this house? If you have truly moved on, we will not be in this dilemma...you would not have killed your sons....you would not have driven Izayoi away...you would not have made all these mistakes that led to the breaking of your family..." the gold faded and Kagome's eye lids fell down, covering the different coloured eyes.

"All humans cannot hold one love in their hearts. They all need more than one to satisfy them. They grow bored of one...and Izayoi is not an exception..." Inu-Tashiou whispered.

Kagome's heart slowly beated within her chest.

"What a waste of energy and powers Rin. I know you can see this and so can my bastard of a son..."

--

Inuyasha held the blood-tipped feather in his trembling hands. He saw his father's first mate, scaring the hell out of Ayumi.

"I can't believe I just wrote that-"

"Too late-"

"We could kill her by making her do this-"

"It is her choice if she wishes to play-"

"Rin, if Kagome fails, what will happen?"

Rin did not answer for awhile. "Inu-Tashiou will make Kagome his slave and Kaome's powers will weaken, but her powers are stronger than mine since she had the time for it manifest itself in the 18 years of life she had. Inu-Tashiou will make Kagome summon souls for him to control and Inu-Tashiou will wreak havoc in the world of the living, killing more as he pleases."

_Squueeeak, squeeeeeeak, sqqqueeeaaaak_

Both heads whipped towards the mirror where the sound came from.

_Yes, I will play..._

_-Ayumi_

Rin grinned and Inuyasha growled, frantically writing down his response.

_This is a deadly game you will about to play girl. Once you start, you have to see it through the end._

Rin didn't react to Ayumi's answer or Inuyasha's warning. She just stood there and watched. She knows that Ayumi can hep Kagome. Ayumi is the link. As long as she brings a mirror with her, they can always have contyact with her. Rin was already starting a plan.

_What do I have to do?_

Ayumi repsonded back, her writing was all messy and screamed she was scared.

Rin took the pen and wrote, _You will help Kagome get rid of a murderer and I will tell you what to do. You will go to the house the Higurashi's resided in..._

The dead souls noticed Ayumi's eyes widened in fright. So she heard the stories flying around the house eh?

"She's going to change her mind. What kind of person is crazy enough to go into a haunted house to help someone they barely know?" Inuyasha mumbled and crossed his arms.

Ayumi lifted her finger, coated in her own blood, and wrote, _Okay. Who is the murderer?_

_The golden-eyed soul that visited you a few moment's ago, that was the murderer's mate. He's dead. Bring a mirror with you. That is the only way we can contact you. No one else can see us but you, so you will have to tell Kagome exactly what I'm telling you..._

_What if Kagome's already...dead?_

Inuyasha grabbed the feather and angrily wrote, _That girl is stubborn as hell! She doesn't give up as easily and she avoided him multiple times! Her luck's running out, but she still is very much alive. _

Ayumi nodded her head and stood up. She wiped her eyes and left her room. A few moments later, she came back in with a make-up mirror.

Inuyasha hesistantly gave the girl a thumb's up. Ayumi nodded her head and walked towards her window.

_WAIT_

Rin wrote hurriedly, tapping on the mirror. Ayumi turned around and rushed back in front of the mirror, fear still wrapping around her.

_You will transfer us from this mirror to that small mirror. You must chant this everytime you switch us from a mirror that you will take with you outside these grounds._

_Samuro swaii shii coo la, foa lah swaii shii coo la..._

Ayumi parted her lips and slowly chanted the words, saying them precisely. Both mirrors glowed and the hanyou and child were gone form the big mirror, and instead were in the small make-up mirror. Ayumi turned around and walked back to her window. She placed the mirror in her pajama picket and opened the window.

She winced as she could hear a distant femnine scream, but it stopped. Ayumi slowly climbed over the ledge and hopped onto the branch acorss from her window. She shimmied down the trunk of the tree and ran towards the looming house.

Ayumi quickly climbed up the steps, leaping over the fallen tree and stopping at the doorstep. She could feel her heart beating rapidly against her ribcage. She had no clue why she was doing this. Maybe it was because she wanted to help Kagome. Helping was always in Ayumi's nature.

She grabbed the doorknob and pushed the door open. She was hit with the sense of evil in the air. Ayumi quietly stepped in, her fear escalading even higher as her heart beated more faster. There, lying on the ground, near Aymui's feet was a crisp, white note. The girl bent down and picked it up, unfolding it.

_Hello there child...welcome to the game. I am your opponent and right now, you are losing...will you make it out victorious? More importantly, will you make it out alive?_

Ayumi screamed when a ghostly hand grabbed her leg.

--

DUNNA! Okay, if you are confused about anything, just ask in the reviews =P

**REVIEW&REVIEW (i would greatly enjoy it ^^)**

**-stealthy jess OUTZ**


	14. Darkness

**Notes**

Dislclaimer: Inuyasha and company doesn't belong to me..**.** =(, but thats okay, this plotline **DOES** belong to me =P

Yesh, the Ayumi in this story is the Ayumi that hangs out w/ Eri and Yuka =P

ENJOY ! !

--

Chap 14- Darkness

--

Every breath she took was as painful as the last. The mere movement of her chest rising and falling hurt so much, she wished she stopped breathing and he just finished her off. Her dull eyes stared at the ground, as her limp body was held against a wall, a bright strand of light leaving her prone form.

Her soul was being sent to the world of th dead, the place where Izayoi, Kouga, Ayame and Sesshomaru were sent to. Except, the place is not Heaven, Hell or Limbo. The _Realm of Darkness_. Pure utter darkness. The world of the dead has many dimensions and Heaven, Hell and Limbo are the most commonly known. The Realm of Darkness is known for its darkness. No light. Nothing. Just black infinite space.

You cannot even see who else is there. Not only is it dark, your soul soon will turn dark. Corrupted. Easily manipulated. Easily submitted to, for your corrupted soul will yearn the feeling of acceptance. Your soul will grab anything so it will feel accepted, even if it meant being bonded to a soul even more corrupt and evil.

Kagome could already feel the greedy clutches of the souls in the Realm of Darkness, grabbing, tugging and pulling her distraught soul towards their grubby and needy ones. Only her powers is what kept her alive so far. Her powers are pushing them away, but her own soul was too weak, too fragile, too broken, to free herself.

_Come here..._

_Join us..._

_Life is better here..._

_Share your pain with us..._

_Your desires..._

It could be so easy to give up and be surrounded by darkness forever. Yet, she knew even in that realm, her soul will still be plagued with pain, forever. Kagome knew she wouldn't be able to hold on to the thin threads of life much longer.

_We welcome you..._

_Join us Kagome..._

_KAGOME!_

_FIGHT IT!_

_DON'T GIVE UP!_

_STAY ALIVE!_

Kagome's eyes snapped open at the four familiar voices. Izayoi, Ayame, Sesshomaru and Kouga.

_Please...Kagome..._

_JOIN US GIRL!_

_Ignore the darkness..._

_COME TO US NOW..._

_Help's on the way..._

The portrait of three youkai's and one human that was shown on the bathroom mirror from what seemed so long ago, flashed in her mind as her last memory.

Kagome's eyes dropped, only a sliver of her irises were seen, but the teenage girl inhaled one last breath before she completely fell forward, the chains releasing their hold on her. She landed on the ground with a soft 'thud'. Child Inyasha howled to see Kagome fall. All hope was lost.

"Kagome," Inuyasha whimpered softly.

A scream reached his ghostly ears and they perked up.

"How is that possible?"

--

Ayumi's heart pounded in her chest as her feet slapped against the ancient floor, wincing as it creaked. After she jerked her leg away form the ghostly hand coming from the ground, she bolted and never slowed down.

Every shadow she saw, made her skin crawl. Every step she took, could mean her death. Every breath she took, could be her last. Everything she is doing could be for nothing and she could be found dead in this frightening mansion-like house.

The terrified teenager slowed down to a walk, hugging herself. Her dark eyes darted around her, anticipating something to just pop out and kill her right there.

_'I must find Kagome, I must find Kagome,'_ Ayumi chanted in her head, her face pale, her form trembling. The small mirror poked her thigh uncomfortably, but she paid no heed to it.

_Please...Kagome..._

_JOIN US GIRL!_

_Ignore the darkness..._

_COME TO US NOW..._

_Help's on the way..._

Ayumi stopped and gasped when she heard deep dark voices and pleading voices echoe in the hallway. The girl gulped and hesistantly followed the voices, the mirror in her pocket vibrating. Ayumi dug in her pocket and grabbed the mirror.

_Those voices are from the Realm of Darkness! You must hurry and find Kagome before she is taken to that realm and stuck there eternally!_

Ayumi nodded and walked down the hallways, trying to find out where her classmate is. Shadows clawed the walls, making her hair stick up on end, sounds reached her human ears, scaring her even more. But the thing that most terrified her was the masked man, or lack thereof.

Shouldn't he be here? Shouldn't he be trying to kill her? Where is he?! His lacking presence scared her even more when she has to soon face him.

"Where are you Kagome?" Ayumi whispered. Then the mirror in her trembling hands pulsed. Ayumi gasped when the mirror shot out, making her follow it, its dull light slightly lighting the dark hallways, but even more terrifying-looking shadows seemed to grab her.

The mirror in Ayumi's hands swiftly turned down hallways, making the girl confused. She ran as fast as she could, but then mirror picked up its speed, dragging the wincing girl behind it.

--

Inuyasha felt himself pulse after he heard those voices. The voices of his mother, the wolf, th wolf's girl and his half-brother and the dark voices belonging to the Realm of Darkness.

_'KAGOME!'_ He was in panic mode. Kagome was closer to death then they thought.

He pulsed again. He could feel his child soul tugging him towards their location and smirked. Rin noticed the smirk on his face and gazed at the mirror.

"Why are you smirking like that? This is a serious matter Inu-"

"We will find Kagome..."

--

Dark. Quiet. Silence. Nothing. Empty.

Yet she felt something. She felt hatred and intense depression slowly meld itself to her soul.

No...please...

She could feel them. Those needy and dark souls, grabbing onto her own, sewing her broken soul back together, with negative stitches and thread sewn out of pure loathing.

I beg of you...let me go...

They paid no heed to her and continued on, their silent laughter mocking her.

Was it too late? Too late for what? Too late to let go? To late to say goodbye? To late to hate oneself for being so weak?

So many questions, but no answers. So much suffering, but no bright light.

What is this place...who am I?

The hands are getting intimate with her soul, making her feel uncomfortable, yet she could do nothing but let them defile her. Who could help her? No one can. She can't help herself. She can't help no one.

Then she heard a howl. A distant and pained howl, along with a frightened scream.

Who is that? Are they hurt?...help me...

Then she felt a fleeting touch on her soul. Something soft, welcoming and _pure_.

Who is that?

_Kagome..._

That voice...

_Please come back to me..._

I'm sorry...

_Don't die on me, you stupid girl!_

Goodbye, Inuyasha...

_NO, KAGOME!_

Gone. Kagome was no more. Her once pure soul has finally submitted to the darkness that held her down.

Kagome Higurashi was dead.

--

**1 day later...**

"-eighteen year old Kagome Higurashi was found dead in her home. The rest of her family members are still missing, but are presumed dead. The police knows not of who commited such a crime to the new family in this city. May their souls rest in peace wherever they are. Back to you Nakato-"

Ayumi shut off the radio, silencing the newscaster's pitying voice. Her friends stared at her, their glances confused and questioning. They will never know. No one will ever know. She will carry this burden with her to her grave and even then, she will carry it with her to the world of the dead, when she can maybe, just _maybe_, see Kagome. Yeah right.

"Ayumi, are you okay?" a girl with a yellow headband asked, her burger half-way towards her opened mouth. Her eyes glancing at her radio she brought with them to their outing.

"You've been acting differnt since you came to school today. Did something happen?" another girl with short hair asked, sticking a french fry in her mouth.

"We're youre friends Ayumi," Yuka, the girl with the headband said soothingly.

"You can tell us anything," the one with the short hair, Eri smiled comfortingly.

_'Yes, something happened. Something horrible happened that not even your immature minds could even come up with,'_ Ayumi darkly thought.

_--FLASHBACK--_

_The mirror continued floating towards its destination, Ayumi chasing after it. After what seemed like forever to the human girl, the mirror stopped and clattered to the ground in front of a door. Ayumi picked up the object and readied herself to what she was about to see._

_Her pale hand grasped the doorknob and she pushed it out slowly. Once the door was fully opened, she stepped inside and the door closed behind her with a loud 'slam'. She squeaked and clutched the mirror tightly._

_Her dark eyes took in the little light in the room and guessed it was Kagome's soul, but she was sadly mistaken. Her classmate laid dead on the ground, her eyes closed and bruises, wounds, scars and blood covered her body._

_"Wh-who are yo-you?" Ayumi stuttered to the soul and the girl could feel its sadness._

_The light did not flicker but wrapped itself around Kagome's still form and the mirror floated away from Ayumi's grasp and laid atop on Kagome's back._

_--_

_Inuyasha could feel Kagome's soul just enter the Realm of the Darkness. The gates between this world and that realm will be opened for just a little while longer. He commanded his younger self to try and hold Kagome's soul where it is, as he attempted to bring her back. Once he felt the mirror lie on top of the girl's back, the black mist started clawing its way towards him, Rin and the mirror._

_"INUYASHA!" Rin screamed, horrified at the black mist crawling towards them._

_Inuyasha turned around and sat cross-legged in front of the moving mist. He stuck his hands out and the black mist stopped a few centimetres from touching his soul. The dead hanyou could feel the darkness wrap itself around him, trying to drag another soul down with them. He was here to save Kagome._

_He heard the questioning thoughts of Kagome once he passed the borders of the Realm of Darkness. The black mist crept over his form, shielding him from Rin's view._

_"The fool..." Rin muttered and pressed her back against the mirror. She cannot leave. She can't just leave Ayumi in this mess. Rin held too much hope and faith in the untrained girl which she gave her powers to and that was her downfall. Now she got Ayumi in this mess and another death will be on her conscience, free from Inu-tashiou._

_--_

_Who is that?_

_Inuyasha grinned in victory and inched even more closer to find Kagome's suffering soul._

Kagome...

_That voice..._

Please come back to me...

_I'm sorry..._

_His eyes widened and panic started to well in him. NO!_

Don't die on me you stupid girl!

_Goodbye, Inuyasha..._

NO, KAGOME!

_Inuyasha howled, pushing himself to find Kagome and forcefully drag Kagome out of there, but something held him back. Rin._

_The dead child stuck her hand in the mist, pulling the hanyou out, freeing him. The black mist started to creep towards him and Inuyasha did nothing but stare at it, hate and grief clouding his sight. Rin pulled the hanyou ghost away from the black mist as she continued to panic and fret._

_"Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!" Rin mumbled, her eyes clenched shut._

_Then the black mist started to recede and Rin knew Ayumi picked up the mirro from Kagome's back and the gates to the realm of darkness closed. She could feel the anger and depresseion radiating off of the hanyou's soul._

_"Inuyasha," Rin whispered._

_"She's gone. Forever this time. He finally killed her...what will happen to her?" Inuyasha whispered, his head bowed low._

_Rin hesistated to answer, but answered him anyways, "Inu-Tashiou will open the gates of the realm and grab Kagome's soul out of the darkness. Her needy and tainted soul will immediately bond itself to his already tainted soul. Then he will do as he please with her and her powers..."_

_"So many died...and now Ayumi will die as well..."_

_--_

_Ayumi picked up the mirror when she noticed black mist started creeping its way towards the mirror, but it vanished when the mirror was no longer in contact with Kagome's dead body._

_"Rest in peace Kagome, I will always remember you," Ayumi whispered and noticed she was being watched._

_The soul of Inu-Tashiou floated away from the corner and stood slightly behind Kagome's sprawled out body. He grinned, his ghostly eyes shining with malice and a wicked glint of happiness. Then he vanished._

_Ayumi slowly left the room and once she was out, she ran towards the entrance, the sun finally rising. The darkness that was contained in the house has momentarily been diseplled as the rays of lights squeezed its way in the ancient and deadly home._

_Ayumi burst out the door, tears escaping her eyes, the mirror clutched to her chest. She could feel the pain Inuyasha is feeling right now._

_--END FLASHBACK--_

"Helloooooooo, Ayumiiiiiii!" Yuka said and snapped her fingers in front of the dazed out girl.

"What?" Ayumi whispered, bringing dull eyes to lock with her friends. "You guys need something?"

"Ack, nevermind!" Eri smacked her forehead and continued to eat.

Ayumi sighed and stood up, taking her uneaten food to the garbage can, where she turned around and left her gaping friends behind. Seriously, they do not feel like her firneds. Hell, she doesn't feel like herself.

The mirror in her purse started vibrating. She paused and dug her hand in her messy and filled purse, grabbing the object.

_I'm sorry...I was so selfish..._

Ayumi smiled a bittersweet smile and bit her finger hard enough to draw out blood.

_Kagome went trhough so much worse than what I did. I can barely imagine what she had to go through, then she died in such a horrible manner, forever wandering in a place where she can never rest in peace..._

Many onlookers stared at the girl that was writing on her mirror with blood with a 'OMG-SHE'S CRAZY' look. She paid no heed to them and continued walking towards the house that claimed so many lives.

After an hour or so of walking, Ayumi stood in front of the driveway that the Higuashi family once resided in. The wind brushed against her, the trees moaning at what they have witnessed over the centuries. The dreadful memories that will forever remain.

One step. Two steps. Ayumi walked up the driveway, her eyes never leaving the quiet house with the bright yellow tape of 'Police Line. Do not enter.' scattered around the outside of the house. She ducked underneath the tape and continued walking, the mirror in her hand shining dully in the soft glow of the sunset.

_Ayumi, what are you doing?!'_ Rin scribbled frantically on the mirror, watching the girl walk towards her death.

_He will kill you if you step foot in the house! You're lucky you're even alive!_

The human girl paid no heed and stepped inside the house, the sun gone as night finally made itself known.

--

**review&review **please =D

--jess outz


	15. Last Stand

**Notes**

--

Chapter 15- Last Stand

--

His eyes narrowed in suspicion. What the hell? No sane person would come back here. Well, Kagome didn't count, she was emotionally attached to Inuyasha even if she didn't know it. So why is she here?

"Master..."

His eyes flicked over the form of his new servant. Out of all the souls he brought out of the realms of the dead, this one, would be the strongest and deadliest among the living world. Why? Her soul was just defiled in the Realm of Darkness and being in that realm, intensified her powers. Made it more prone to manipulation and darkness.

"Do you wish to play my pet?"

The white parts of her eyes stared back at her ghostly master. No irises, nothing.

"Do I have your permisson, master?"

Inu-Tashiou turned his head and stared at the dead body of his old and first mate. After a few seconds of silence...

"Have fun..."

She was gone.

--

Th trees outside slightly creaked against the breeze. The black crows cawed lightly in the night. A sign. Someone will die tonight.

She hesistantly stood in front of the door, not knowing what to do now. The mirror in her hand vibrated, trying to get Ayumi's attention, but she paid no heed. Her breaths were seen as a cool mist as she exhaled as it suddenly got cold.

Ayumi started shivering, rubbing her arms as she tried to get back the lost heat into her body. No use.

_AYUMI! GET OUT!_ Rin wrote, trying to get Ayumi's attention.

'_He will kill me sooner or later. I have to at least try to finish what Kagome started,_' Ayumi thought and took one hesistant step-

"Ayumi!" a familiar voice cried out in the darkness.

The said girl froze and slightly turned her had, tyring to locate the voice.

"AYUMI! HELP M-" the voice didn't finish the sentence and all was quiet in the house, except Ayumi's harsh breathing.

"Kagome!" Ayumi screamed and started following where the voice came from. "KAGOME!"

Ayumi was plunged in the darkness as she blindly walked in a hallway, feeling her way around. The dim light from outside barely helped her situation and the vibrating mirror in her hand made her the more jumpy.

_Ring Ring_

Ayumi froze as she strained her ears to see if she was dreaming or not.

_Ring Riiiiing_

She wasn't imagining it. Something in the house is ringing.

_'Should I follow it? Myabe Kagome's on the other line? Maybe it's a clue to where Kagome is? Maybe...'_ Ayumi followed the constant ringing in the silent house, the mirror vibrating harder.

_Ayumi! Please! Leave while you have a chance girl! _Rin begged, smearing blood as she clumsily wrote.

_Riiiing Riiiiing_

Ayumi finally could hear the clear ringing and turned the corner. She let out a scream when she saw an arm attached to the ringing phone. She could feel bile rise up in her throat, but she swallowed it, grimacing.

_Riiiiiiing riiiinnng_

Ayumi slowly walked towards the phone...

_Riiiiiing riiiiiing_

She lifted her trembling arm...

_Riiiiing riiiiing_

She felt the dried skin of the dead arm...

_Riiiing riiiiiii-_

"Kagome?" Ayumi whispered in the phone, pocketing her mirror.

No one answered except heavy breathing on the other line.

"Kagome? Is that you? You're not really dead then?"

"...Ayumi..." the voice on the other line croaked.

Ayumi's face lit up with relief and happiness. "You really are alive then! But how?"

"...Ayumi..." Kagome repeated, her heavy breathing stopping. "Turn around Ayumi..."

Ayumi shook her head and refused to turn around and begged, "Kagome, please-"

A paper airplane hit the back of Ayumi's head and she dreadfully turned around, expecting some type of scary monster, but nothing. Nothing was there, except a bloodied paper airplane.

Many things happened at once.

_AYUMI-_ Rin never did finish her sentence on the mirror, for the mirror cracked, sending shards of glass through Ayumi's legs.

The line went dead.

Ayumi released a blood-curdling scream.

The paper airplane opened and a hand picked it up, raising it to the place where her eyes once were.

Ayumi's body dropped to the ground, her leg bleeding, as the frame of the mirror, slid out of her pocket, stopping at the whispery tail of the only figure in the room.

"'Go...'Go-me..." Ayumi mumbled, her lips quivering. The bloodied paper airplane landed on her back.

The figure bent down again and picked up the broken mirror, not heeding the pointed edges. Her reflection stared back at her and she inspected it with her other hand. Ayumi still laid motionless on the ground, her blank eyes dazedly eyeing the other occupant. Kagome. Sweet, innocent Kagome. Even in death, she looked the same, except empty eye sockets stared back at her.

She wore the school's uniform, except the green and white, it's black and white, with random flecks of red stained all over it. A black string connected from Ayumi's back to Kagome's pale fingers as the dead girl continued to inspect the mirror. Blood dripped from the black string. Ayumi's own lifeline.

Black mist started leaking out of the broken mirror, curling itself around Kagome's form, but she remained unfazed. The black mist uncurled itrelf around her body and started creeping towards Ayumi's prone body on the floor.

If Ayumi could move, she would be screaming, thrashing, anything, just to get away from what she knew was her death. Kagome dropped the mirror, and flicked her wrist, willing Ayumi's body to move. It did.

The human's girl body rose and her jaw dropped with a twitch of Kagome's fingers. The black mist circled Ayumi's form, entering through her ears, eyes, nose and finally, her mouth. Inside, Ayumi was screaming at the intense pain she was enduring once the black mist coiled itself around her human body. She never felt this much pain befroe. It was like a searing hot blade was slowly ripping through her flesh, as thousands of scalding hot needles stabbed through her organs, wanting her to slowly die.

Kagome grinned maliciously. Bye bye Ayumi. She too, will become that of the dead, becoming one with the Realm of Darkness. The mist continued getting darker, covering Ayumi's form and the black string snapped, the body plummeting to the ground once more.

The bloodied paper plane whirled around the black mist, fluttering at Kagome's ghostly tail...

_What once was,  
__Never would be again.  
__The ghost of the past,  
__Will forever haunt these halls._

_Many names,  
__Many deaths,  
__Yet none claimed,  
__These unfortunate souls._

_Forever will they belong,  
__To no one but I;  
__Forever will they be brought,  
__Pain and hate._

_I will not rest.  
I will not die.  
I will not cease  
__To exist..._

Kagome flicked her wrist and black flames rendered the paper airplane into blackened ashes. _'Foolish InuTashiou, like I care who he killed and what he thinks of himself and the lowly souls that once worked for him...'_

"I cease to exist myself..." Kagome said.

The shards of the mirror glowed faintly in the dark.

--

Rin tried to warn Ayumi of the impeding doom she was about to face shortly after she entered the 'Death House'. She tried to warn the girl that someone was watching her through the shadows. The voice that sounded like Kagome's, was Kagome, yet was not. She tried to tell the alive girl that she will be placed in the same realm that twisted Kagome's soul into their own dark wants and desires, but she was ignored.

Inuyasha did nothing, for he was wallowing himself in hate, pity, depression and many emotions. The dead hanyou cared not for the mirror that cracked when when Rin was in the middle of writing something, when the plane came by. He did not notice the black mist creeping forwards, wrapping them in their dark embrace.

Rin tried anything to get out, to esape, but she was stuck in this world, and so was the hanyou, who didn't even respond. His feelings for Kagome was so deep, he broke the number one rule of death. Never have feelings for someone of that of the living.

Rin never knew the pain Ayumi was suffering through. Rin never never knew what was happening in the outside world. Rin never knew that she would never be freed from this pain and eternity of suffering.

Rin chuckled bitterly, as the black mist started runing her vision. She felt the beginning of losing herself as all the betrayal, pain and bitterness rose up, attempting to engulf her small soul into the Realm of Darkness.

Inuyasha didn't move. He didn't react. He too was being consumed by all the things that was done to him in his short span of life, and in this world. All that, was rapidly eating at his soul, bringing him closer to the worlds that every soul feared.

"Kagome, I'm coming..." Inuyasha whispered and closed his eyes.

The cracked mirror glowed faintly, dispelling some of the black mist.

Rin noticed and tried to catch the hanyou's attention, but she could not scream.

_'Inuyasha! You must think of something positive!'_ Rin screamed in her ghostly mind, but Inuyasha did nothing and the black mist darkened. _'Think of all the good times- if you had any- with Kagome!'_

Inuyasha opened his eyes once more and saw a struggling Rin, frantically mouthing words to him, but he did not understand.

"Thank you Kagome, for helping us and giving us hope at least..." Inuyasha murmured, wanting his last thoughts to be of the carefree and happy Kagome.

The black mist lightened, but barely.

"You were so carefree..."

--

Kagome noticed the shards of mirror scattered around Ayumi's form were glowing and that the black mist was lessening. Her eyebrows shot up towards her hairline as she growled.

--

"I always thought you were beautiful...in your own clumsy and optimistic way..."

--

"Nooo!" Kagome hissed and dove towards Ayumi's body, which can be seen as the mist started disappearing.

--

"I've never met anyone like you...no one so determined and no matter what my father threw at you, you continued to stand..."

--

"STOP IT!" Kagome screamed, trying to destroy the glowing shards, which are brightening.

"What is going on?!" Inu-Tashiou demanded as he saw a panicked servant, a human girl lying in a small puddle of blood and shards of glass everywhere, as the black mist started to evaporate.

--

"My whole life was devoted to suffering and hate, but when you came along..."

--

Both dead souls tried to stop the black mist from leaving and the shards of glass continued to brighten, as Ayumi started to move slowly, the pain lessening.

--

"I lived a pretty normal life because of you. When you first hugged me...all my negative emotions I was trapped with, left..."

--

"AHHH!" Kagome screamed as she fell on the ground, her dead body convulsing.

Ayumi just laid there, watching with frightened eyes. Kagome's hair seemed to lengthen and flash silver. Her empty eye sockets flashed gold. Her dull fingernails elongated to claws, and the screaming stopped, replaced by heavy breathing.

Inu-Tashiou's eyes widened.

--

"I may be dead...but Kagome..."

--

She stood up weakly, fresh wounds gushing out blood. Familair wounds from a war, from many centuries ago. Kagome's body slowly turned into that of InuTashia's, except, her eyes were in her eye sockets. Even with the blood everywhere, she still looked elegant.

She stepped over Ayumi's body, her eyes never leaving her first mate's eyes. A small tree in a black and silver pot, appeared beside her form, accompanied with an empty picture frame.

--

"I wish I realized this sooner," Inuyasha smiled bitterly, never noticing the black mist was almost non-existent.

--

"For you have commited many deaths, Hell will never accept your corrupt soul..." InuTashia stated, weakly walking towards her mate who yet has to move.

--

"Kagome, is it possible...for me to fall for you?"

--

The silver-haired demoness lifted her bloodied right hand, palm up and a ball of sizzling energy flew from her palm towards the shocked youkai, whom only smirked in response.

"Do not underestimate the powers of Kagome..."

--

The black mist was completely gone and Rin, for once in her entire existence, felt at ease and calm. She finally got her desired freedom at last. She became transparent, smiling at the hanyou before she completely disappeared.

Inuyasha laid on the ground, watching Rin leave, a small smile creeping on his ghostly face, but he too, felt the same thing Rin felt, except the hollowness that Kagome was gone. He too disappeared.

The mirror repaired itself, making the world of living an easy access to other wandering souls.

--

If one listened closely, one can hear a distant scream, blanketing the quiet neighborhood which many rumours revolved around. Children would wake up crying, wanting their parents to comfort them. Parents woke up, sweat and fear radiating in their home. The elderly gasped in fright and cowered.

The pained scream continued, lasting until the first rays of light peaked through the mountains, casting any evil away...for now that is.

--

**review&review please =D**

**WHOOO! **One more chapter and this story is finito my precious reviewers&readers ^^

--jess is ouuuuutttttaaaa here ;P


	16. Closure

**Notes**

A/N: This is the last chapter of Notes, please enjoy and thank you.

--

Chapter 16-Closure

--

The wind brushed up against the creaking and ancient house atop a hill. The dark and omnimous clouds were splotched randomly against the dark sky.

A black crow perched on a sturdy branch in the forest cawed in the dark night.

A sign.

A warning.

Someone will die tonight.

A young boy stared out of his window and at the lone house, pressing his face against the glass, trying to get a glimpse of something. Something familiar.

Another caw.

"Satsu, you should be be in bed," Satsu's mother whispered, dabbing her eyes with a damp tissue filled with her tears.

The young brother of his now missing sister ignored his mother and continued peering outside, his warm breath fogging the window. His eyes widened and he hastily rubbed the fog off the window, but when he cleared the window, what he saw was no longer there.

He sighed and slowly dragged his feet towards his room, sadness radiating off his small form. He thought he saw his big sister, Ayumi. She was standing on the driveway, with no expression on her face, her clothes torn and bloody, but what scared him the most was the rope dangling around her neck.

--

_You are their mediator. You will forever stay with them..._

_Forever?_

_Even in death girl..._

_Why me? Why am I burdened with something such as this?!_

_Because..._

_--_

Satsu quietly slipped into bed as tears streaked down his childish face. A familair form stood underneath his doorframe, but he could not see who it was. A hand slowly turned the lights off. Satsu whimpered sadly and pulled the covers over his head, not wanting anybody to see he was crying.

The shadow moved and soundlessly walked towards Satsu's quivering form and sat beside the small bump, raising a quivering hand on his back.

"Golden slumber kiss your eyes, smiles await you when you rise. Sleep, pretty baby, do not cry, And I will sing you a lullaby. Care is heavy, therefore sleep, while I o'er you watch do keep. Sleep, pretty darling, Do not cry, and I will sing you a lullaby..."

--

_You have seen too much, grieved too much..._

_What does that have to do with anything?_

_A soul can handle so much and your soul has mingled with the Realm of Darkness..._

_What does that mean?_

_It means..._

--

"Black abyss kiss your eyes, death awaits you when you rise..." the shadow muttered while rubbing the boy's shaking back. "Once upon a time, there was a ghost, a girl, and another ghost, but he was so mean and evil..."

Satsu slowly peered out of the covers and into the shadow beside him, squinting his eyes to see who it was.

"He loved playing mind games, but he adored killing those who betrayed their loved ones. So he killed in cold blood..."

The shadow paused her ministrations and stood up, walking towards the window and the only source of light coming form the dim lights of the flickering lamps outside. Satsu felt warning bells ring in his head, but he could not move, he was too scared.

Once the shadow was enveloped in light, a girl of 18 years stood in front of the window, her blank gaze staring at the petrified boy, with a smirk on her bloody face. Her school uniform was that of black and red, instead of its usual red and green.

A long rope was wrapped around her neck tightly, but she was able to talk with it around her neck. Satsu opened his mouth to scream...

--

_It means that you are already dead. Soon, the darkness that was seeped into your soul..._

_I'm already...dead?_

_Will corrupt you..._

_I'm...dead...?_

--

...but the girl was much faster. She slapped a dirty hand across the young boy's mouth, muffling any scream.

Another caw in the night.

"The girl, she went through many obstacles and escaped deaths grasps oh so many times, it was a wonder she managed to make it through the days alive, injured and almost broken, but alive..."

Satsu was desperately tugging on the hand across his mouth, as big blobs of tears fell from his scared eyes. He kicked out his legs at the offending girl, but black mist seemed to wrap around his legs, crushing them.

He jerked his legs towards his form and continued tugging....

--

_No one has managed to make it out of that realm fine and alive...Kagome did not...she is dead..._

_What will happen to me?_

_You will become the mediator between two souls..._

_What?_

_Balance is everything..._

--

...her smirk never faded and a predatory look swirled in the girl's once blank eyes.

"The ghost boy kept her going, kept her spirits up. He was the one that held her together, kept her sane...but one can go so far before they break and when that happens...they're forever lost in the black abyss of their own soul's evil..."

Then the predatory look in her eyes disappeared and the blank and neutral gaze.

"Then another girl came in this bloody battle between the living and the dead..."

--

_You are now the mediator..._

_What?_

_Your soul is cut right in half; half pure, half evil..._

_Is that even possible?_

_Both forces battling for dominance; the longer you live...the more evil you become..._

--

"She too fought, but in the end, it wasn't enough, nothing was enough..."

The hand that griped Satsu's mouth tightened and he flinched in pain. His legs started burning and he noticed black marks on his legs, as his life's blood slowly dripped on the floor. He started flailing and thrashing, trying to bite the hand off, but his teeth would just go through.

"One can never escape the grasp of death..."

One final caw...

--

_Girl...you must let go...you must take the job..._

_...Let go of what?_

_...You must die..._

--

_Name: __Kagome Higurashi_

_Age: 18 years old_

_DOB: March 17, 1889_

_A wonderful girl. Always did everything to her best of her abilties when it comes to her loved ones._

_Cause(s) of Death: Unknown. Body found hanging on a tree branch by silver hair, above an improper burial that dated around 5oo years ago._

_She will be missed dearly..._

_-.-.-_

_Name: Ayumi Tsumaki_

_Age: 18 years old_

_DOB: January 6, 1889_

_A very kind and caring girl. A down to earth type of girl and one that was always outgoing._

_Cuase(s) of Death: Unknown. Body found hanging in younger brother's bedroom in front of window._

_She will be remembered..._

_-.-.-_

_Name: Satsu Tsumaki_

_Age: 7 years old_

_DOB: September 22, 2oo1_

_A bubbly and loud child. He was always so cheerful and loving towards everything._

_Cause(s) of Death: Unknown. Black markings on legs. Body found in his bedroom early morning. Blood was everywhere._

_He will be loved..._

A hand slowly closed the newspaper obituary and flipped to the next page, continuing to read the story that made headlines news all over the globe.

The ancient T.V. flickered on and the fuzzy voices echoed in the empty house.

"-what was weird was in the young boy's room was a small tree in a black and silver pot, along with a portrait of an inu youkai. Those were the only items that remained untouched of the blood..."

A small note fell from the hand holding the newspaper.

_Would you like to play?_

Two screams echoed in the house, fighting for dominance for all of eternity.

--

a/n: this is it everybody. This is the end for **Notes**. I want to thank all those who reviewed and read this story, espeically :

**Miko's Youkai**

**Spidey meets Wizard-Theif**

**LoVe23**

For reviewing most, if not all my chapters, so thank you, you three!!!

**Please review&review** (ps. if any of you are confused on what happened, the italics writing (not the obituary part) that is the conversation between InuTashia and Ayumi. At th end, the person holding the newspaper is Ayumi, she is dead and she now lives in Inu-Tashiou's house too. The two screams belongs to Kagome and Inu-Tashiou for their souls can never rest in peace and Ayumi is the one that stands in between them at time to make peace, that is, if her soul's purity is stronger than her evil part of her soul. If you are still confused, just pm me and i shall explain it more to y'all =D )

--jess is gone ;P (only in this story hehe)


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